Brandjack News

By Quentin Langley

I should begin with a confession. I used to be a supporter of Silvio Berlusconi, and was probably a little slow in realising that he was awful. The logic seemed clear. Italian politics, prior to Berlusconi's consolidation of conservative forces, had been wholly disfunctional. More than anything, Italy needed to confront corruption. To do this required someone who understood the nature of corruption, and this could only be eitehr a politician or a business leader. Politicians were trousering the money, and business was the victim of all this extortion. It seemed perfectly rational for Italians to turn to one of its most successful entrepreneurs to sort out the mess. However, it turned out that Berlusconi was not the man to do this.

For one thing, Berlusconi does not seem to be motivated to deal with corruption. He doesn't seem to want it to stop. The main benefit he seems to have derived from being engaged in politics is immunity from prosecution. 

Italy's financial situation is not as serious as that of Greece, but the government doesn't even seem to be trying to do anything about it. This has been the normal Italian approach to EU rules all along. Italy is a founder member of the European Communities and was traditionally very pro-Europe. Unfortunately, this generally manifested as Italy agreeing to any regulation that was proposed, but then not implementing it. This seems to be the Italian attitude to fiscal reform: agree, but do nothing.

That Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel are openly laughing at the idea of taking Berlusconi's assurances seriously is a very bad sign. It means they do not believe that Italy will confront its problems, and suggests they do no take seriously their own assurances that the Euro can be saved in its current form.

That Italian politics is dominated is dominated by a philandering grandfather, barely able to stay ahead of corruption allegations, with alleged links to the mafia who makes buffoonish remarks about other political leaders is a major branding issue for the country. It implies that every negative stereotype about Italians is true, at least in the case of the country's Prime Minister.

This situation leaves little room for a credible plan to save the Euro.