The man they love to hate

ROME, Italy – What would the Italian newspapers do without their spirited, brave, bellicose and mala-propos Prime Minister? Answer: They’d run out of banner headlines.

Yesterday, on assuming the presidency of the European Union (it’s Italy’s turn for the next six months), Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi provoked a chorus of boos and jeers by "insulting" a German delegate.

Immediately, one of Rome’s leading dailies, La Republica roared in its front-page banner: "Europa, Bufera su Berlusconi" ("Europe storms at Berlusconi!"). My suspicion is that, while they scoff at him frequently, Italians love it! Why, they re-elect him all the time. Berlusconi’s antics are the kind of opera buffo many Italians, themselves, live on the streets and in the narrow viccoli of their cities – everyday, as you amble along, you spot histrionics la bella figura, drama and high spirits. Italy is an outdoor theater (at present a very hot and steamy one) in which everyone takes part in the play and interplay.

What did Berlusconi do in his debut at the helm of the European Parliament – which is packed with too many boors, anyway, if you ask me. He bellowed back at a sassy Socialist German Member of Parliament, Martin Schultz, who noisily questioned Berlusconi having used his majority of supporters in the Italian parliament to pass an "immunity" law exempting himself from being tried and convicted in any Italian court until his term was over.

Berlusconi has been on the docket in a Milan court for the past few years for alleged "bribery" he conducted when he was a businessman, and not yet in politics. He has constantly fumed that the Milan magistrates had been persecuting him for political reasons. Sounds like good old Pilipinas, doesn’t it?

In any event, the German MP’s heckling got Berlusconi’s goat. He riposted in his typically brusque manner (it has ruffled feathers back home, not just in Strasbourg) that German Social Democrat Schultz would be perfect for a movie role as a Nazi concentration camp guard.

Said he: "Mr. Schultz, I know there is a producer in Italy who is making a film on the Nazi concentration camps. I will suggest you for the role of kapo (commander of inmates). You’d be perfect."

Parliament President Pat Cox, an Irish independent, quelled the resulting uproar by suspending the session. Berlusconi stoutly refused to withdraw the comment. In a press conference, he merely quipped: "It was an ironic joke. Perhaps the translation wasn’t done in an ironic sense."

Subsequently, he quipped: "I am sorry if I offended the historic sensibilities of German people." He didn’t apologize directly to the irritating Schultz, however. Why should he? (As one who, myself, insulted the historic sensibilities of one German, the former Ambassador Herr Gotterdammerung, or what was his name? He’s now retired, hopefully in Nigeria, but probably in his boasted-about villa in southern France.) Now, I remember, Goettelmann – wasn’t that it? Or Goering?

Anyway, Mr. B in Strasburg was nettled by some members of the European Parliament holding up placards, proclaiming: "Everyone is equal under the law," and "No Godfather for Europe" – presumably referring to Berlusconi’s sprawling business empire, and his media clout which includes ownership of three major TV stations, plus "control" of two television stations run by the government.

Susmariosep, if you ask me, nobody in the European Parliament is entitled to throw stones. Belgium itself has had its multibillion franc defense procurement scandals. The Germans have had their ex-Kanzler Helmut Kohl and the CDU "bribed" by the French. The French government has been rocked by scandals involving the multibillion franc Follies of Elf-Acquitaine, whose stink rose to the highest Cabinet level, including the . . . er, top?

As for Berlusconi, I think he’s enjoying it.

Nero didn’t fiddle while Rome burned. Berlusconi, merrily, is fiddling around, while the European Parliament gets "burned up" about him. The European Union is misnamed. There’s no Union, I suspect.