04 November 2017

Berlusconi and Leaden Ghosts

Obviously this story is still up in the air and there are a lot of unanswered questions. The Wikipedia article on the Via dei Georgofili bombing is quite unsatisfactory and presents the issue as concluded, when it's clear that not even the authorities actually believe that to be the case.


It's presented as a case of a mafia boss striking out in retaliation to restrictive jail measures but of course if Berlusconi is involved or indeed ordered it, then that explanation falls flat.
Berlusconi is dirty. I don't think there are too many people who think otherwise. He's tied to corrupt business dealings, the mafia and as a much younger man was even involved in the P2 scandal which embroiled the mafia, the Vatican Bank, WWII era fascists and neo-fascists. The scandal also involved corrupt banking, money laundering and paramilitary violence from Latin America to Europe. Italy was one of the focal points of these activities. Though the scandal erupted in the 1980s and brought many people down and generated a shift in Italian politics. The dominant Christian Democratic Party which was in part established and long-supported by American intelligence agencies and the Roman Catholic Church was eventually brought down and dissolved in 1994.
Berlusconi was one of the figures who escaped punishment and went on to immediately form Forza Italia and subsequently became prime minister, an office he would eventually hold on four separate occasions.
While he was forced out a few years back and has been embroiled in scandal he hasn't completely disappeared from the picture. Despite his recent attempts at a comeback, clearly his star has faded. His days in office are basically done but he can still play puppetmaster and architect. Long a friend of US interests, his foreign policy in particular represents positions that have now been abandoned with the recent shifts in geopolitics... what I have termed the new phase in the so-called War on Terror and the rise of the Cold War II scenario. Despite this Berlusconi and the people who surround him, the ones who will soon take up his mantle can still play a role.
The story regarding the Florence bombing is interesting because it reminds us that even though the Christian Democrats and much of the apparatus connected to the Years of Lead, the Italian Deep State and the Vatican/P2 scandal faded away by the end of the 1980s and early 1990s... the story was not over. The 1990s was the decade of transition and realignment as old alliances were broken, new ones were being formed and little behind-the-scenes civil wars were breaking out. By the end of the decade and with the PNAC (Project for the New American Century) agenda underway by the early 2000's new alliances and doctrines began to govern the day. Berlusconi is one of the few figures from European politics that made the transition and in a fairly smooth manner at that.
His day is all but over and though he is still trying to play a role in Italian politics, his clock is running out. He turned 81 a couple of months ago. Was this 'investigation' nothing more than a cynical ploy to make his political party lose votes? Though his party isn't directly involved in the upcoming Sicily election he's supporting one of the candidates and some view this as a test. Maybe there's something to the timing, but apart from that, the Italian authorities could spend a lifetime, indeed they could create a whole department just to investigate Berlusconi and his crimes. The problem is... it's just too big. He's part of that massive Deep State machine that transcends the power and influence of the Italian bureaucracy and legislature. Berlusconi is quite literally one of the 'masters'... one of the big men and yet there are others even beyond him.

1 comment:

  1. Megalomania on display.

    Either that or he figures if he doesn't keep scrambling for power he'll lose it and his past will catch up with him. He must stay in the game.

    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41895056

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