Italy’s beleaguered prime minister

Last week Bastyen made his oral presentation on an article from the Economist untitled “A fresh scandal and a former ally, Gianfranco Fini, behind his back. Is it the beginning of the end for Silvio Berlusconi?”.

This article tells us that the situation is rather difficult for Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister. Three main reasons can explain the difficulty of the current situation. First the article tells us about another sex scandal involving Silvio Berlusconi. Then there is the fact that Gianfranco Fini, a former ally of Silvio Berlusconi, is now deserting the prime minister’s cause and the difficulties the governmental coalition has to face.

The prime minister’s behavior is problematic for the country. Indeed Silvio Berlusconi gives a bad image of Italy. We can mention the sex scandals which involve minors. We can also evoke his racist or homophobic declarations. His attitude and his statements also discredit him on the international level and particularly on the European scene. That’s why Bastyen said that Berlusconi badly represents his country.

Then, Italy meets financial difficulties which makes the country hard to govern. Moreover the People of Freedom (the prime minister’s party) is declining. However Silvio Berlusconi is still prime minister because Italians don’t see any other alternative. The opposition is in fact divided.
Berlusconi’s opinion is the following one: I can do whatever I want because my private life concerns just me and anyone else. Bastyen asked us if we thought that the intimacy of a politician should be exemplary or, on the contrary, if a politician can do whatever he wants. Bastyen thinks that a politician can do whatever he wants; his intimacy doesn’t have to be exemplary. Pascal agrees with Bastyen but for him this is more than a problem of private life. Berlusconi’s behavior is immoral and illegal. Pascal wonders if a politician can represent his country when he doesn’t respect these main rules. In my opinion, a politician can’t do whatever he wants. Indeed he has been elected. So he can’t change his behavior after his election (such as being involved in a sex scandal). He is also some sort of example. So he has to respect the code of ethics. Moreover a politician represents his country. His behavior will determine the image of the country he represents. His behavior can discredit a country on the international scene. I think that a politician can do whatever he wants in his private life as long as he is sure that his actions or his declarations won’t have any impact on the image he reflects. But he has to take into account the repercussions his behavior could have. At last, if his behavior is disappointing, voters will sanction him at the time of the next elections.

Then Bastyen reminded us that Berlusconi wanted to reform the Italian judiciary system in order to protect politicians from lawsuits during their mandates. His question was the following: “do you think that heads of states or prime ministers shouldn’t be sued during their mandates or are they lambda citizens?”. He evoked the fact that there are countries in which politicians can be sued during their mandates. I think that heads of states or prime ministers have to respect law as the others citizens. So in my opinion they should be sued during their mandates. However it could be prejudicial for the image of the country to sue the head master or the prime minister.