It's a terrible thing to say this of a man, or someone who has died, but thank God.<p>I mean, it might well by the end he was been pretty aged in his mind and was being used or fooled or had lost the plot : his comments about Ukraine were staggering, appalling aberrations you never want to hear from someone with considerable public stature in any country.
Berlusconi was said to have had ties to organized crime, going back to his time as a real estate lawyer.
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/dec/04/silvio-berlusconi-linked-mafia-court" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/dec/04/silvio-berlusc...</a>
One of the very few people whom it's not worth shedding tears over. The sheer destruction Berlusconi brought upon his country and democracy at large is unimaginable.<p>Berlusconi was <i>the</i> pioneer of modern populism, of all of it. Corruption, embezzlement, buying up or otherwise controlling media for manipulating or influencing coverage, being involved in <i>so many</i> scandals that it became completely impossible to track their progress or to discuss/demand consequences... you name it, Berlusconi invented it.<p>(Presumably) having sex with (close to) underage women and girls and having extramarital affairs in general was just the cherry on the cake (the Bunga Bunga affair).<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvio_Berlusconi_prostitution_trial" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvio_Berlusconi_prostitution...</a>
For those who did not grow up like me in Berlusconi's Italy, he was an interesting character and in many ways a precursor of today's politics. When Trump came to rise, I felt many aspects were similar: both very rich entrepreneurs, arrogant personalities, a tendency to go against well established rules, personal attacks on opponents, an admiration for strongmen (Berlusconi had a clear crush on Putin), tax creativity, laws purposefully written for himself and his friends, and of course exploiting partisan news outlets. Berlusconi's career took a turn when he developed Mediaset to be a large TV company that could compete with national public TV, and still does, while offering a load of trash to the public. He was many times under investigation, sometimes convicted without ever going to jail, and many times exploiting the statute of limitations to avoid conviction by dragging the trial along for years.<p>His party was essentially founded upon him and his personality, and is currently one of the parties in the government coalition, with a relatively minor share, I expect voted by older people nostalgic of his era. We will not miss him -- but in hindsight we have seen even worse characters in the last 10 years.
We foreigners judge Berlusconi on our own moral framework. But Italy is not like most other countries:<p><pre><code> "Italy breathed a sigh of relief today upon learning that the country's highest court of appeal had ruled that influence-peddling is not a crime. The only punishable offense, the judges decided, is overstating one's power to exert influence.
''Essentially, the judges are saying what everybody in Italy believes: It is not a crime, as long as you do it well,'' Franco Ferrarotti, an Italian sociologist said of the Wednesday ruling on ''raccomandazione,'' the Italian custom of seeking and receiving special treatment from people in power, or close to it.
''This is our version of the Protestant ethic,'' Mr. Ferrarotti said. ''When a favor works successfully, it ceases to be a crime and becomes a work of art.''</code></pre>
<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20201112040914/http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/20/world/rome-journal-official-favors-oil-that-makes-italy-go-round.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://web.archive.org/web/20201112040914/http://www.nytime...</a><p><pre><code> In 2001, British author and physician Theodore Dalrymple argued that corruption is actually the "one saving grace" of Italian public administration. Dalrymple explained his view that Italy's government was overburdened with an inefficient bureaucracy that slows down any progress but that corruption and bribery to bypass roadblocks allows for some progress to be made.[31]
Dalrymple further maintained that the open display of corruption on the part of government officials causes Italian citizens to view the government as the 'enemy', an attitude that Dalrymple considered sensible and healthy, as compared with the misguided British belief that the state is purely good. This belief, Dalrymple charged, "has completely eroded the proud and sturdy independence of the British population."
</code></pre>
<a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_Italy#" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_Italy#</a>
As an Italian-American I find comments in this thread very very distasteful.<p>I am not a Berlusconi fan, and am disgusted by politics in general, but this guy was basically a JFK who got to live till 86 years old.<p>Corruption and ties with the organized crime? Those were the bread and butter for the Kennedy family, that's how he stole Illinois , how his dad made money with the contraband etc. and yet given that he took the bullet in Dallas and signed off the Apollo program everybody should get on their knees and genuflect and pay respects to the big man.<p>Airports and roads and everything entitled to the memory of the dude, but hey Berlusconi is an olive oil drinking devil and so we ought to celebrate his death, right?<p>The American melting-pot is an extraordinary feat but as long as Americans will keep treating other countries who made up the same melting pot with a different set of standards there will always be tensions. It is a melting pot but most people don't like insults to their country of origin and double standards for 2 identical political leaders just because one was born within the limits of the invisible border and has the Bald Eagle on the Passport.
Trump before Trump - Silivio Berlusconi was maybe the first of the modern populists - a political outsider who used celebrity status and media influence to enter the halls of power, and then proceeded to denigrate the establishment at every opportunity. It's a serious matter that this type of personality finds political favour amongst the people, and that our current systems of governance allow for unserious characters of this type to become paramount leader of an entire country.<p>More of this type to come. Tucker Carlson for President? Jake Paul? Wouldn't bet against either or worse
It's unbelievable how long the reign of this generation of politicians was and still is today. It will also never be repeated in the future, thankfully.
One of the last giants, signing the end of an era. While not perfect, like anyone, he marked both Italian and European politics of his singular approach and proverbial ball. Politics now are becoming much more dull and suffering of a lack of vision.