Audiences in Italy can finally take a break from serious headlines - dominated this spring by the Arab upheavals, unemployment and illegal immigration - to watch the latest installment of a crime saga featuring Silvio Berlusconi as its main protagonist.
The latest round of proceedings against Italy's incumbent prime minister and most powerful television magnate commenced at Milan's Palace of Justice on Wednesday, drawing an unprecedented number of reporters from across Europe and beyond, and crowds of protesters and supporters.
Democracy Italian style
Berlusconi stands accused of having sex with an underage prostitute and abusing his office to cover up the alleged crime. The prime minister, who denies any wrongdoing, used a Cabinet meeting on Libya Wednesday as an excuse to skip the first hearing of the trial, dubbed Rubygate after the nickname of the Moroccan nightclub dancer, Karima El Mahroug, whom he had allegedly paid for sex.
This is not the first criminal case against Italy's controversial prime minister, but it is perhaps the most spectacular one so far. With celebrity witnesses like George Clooney and his girlfriend, Italian model Elisabetta Canalis, alongside soccer stars, Cabinet ministers, and alleged prostitutes, the trial promises to put on an interesting show about sex, money and power, hence its mass appeal.
Berlusconi is, obviously, far from perfect. He is an eccentric, unpredictable, arrogant and selfish playboy. He has never made any secret of his promiscuity and has more than once found himself in the center of a sex scandal. Yet, he is a remarkable political survivor, reelected to Italy's top job three times so far.
This time, though, the most serious charge brought against Berlusconi is abuse of power. When the 17-year-old Mahroug was detained, he called the police to say she was the niece of Hosni Mubarak, then president of Egypt, and should be released from custody to avoid a diplomatic scandal.
Watching this latest courtroom spectacle from the outside, one cannot help wondering whether corruption, abuse of power, and sexual misconduct are more prevalent in Italian politics than elsewhere. Do political elites elsewhere in Europe abide by a different set of ethics?
For more than a decade now, prosecutors in Milan have been trying unsuccessfully to bring the incumbent premier to justice. The charges run the gamut: corruption, tax fraud, perjury, bribery, links to the mafia, sex with underage prostitutes, and other serious offenses.
Do their failed attempts to convict Berlusconi attest to the degradation of Italy's elite or rather to the advanced liberalism of Italian society? Or, perhaps, both? Is Italy a democracy or a private corporation, a brothel run by Berlusconi and Co.?
Judging by what is taking place inside Milan's major courtroom, Italy remains a democratic country, despite Berlusconi's attempts to modify some national laws to suit his personal interests.
What's in store for Berlusconi?
The long-serving Italian premier has eight trials under his belt so far. A total 2,500 court hearings have been held on his previous cases. He has had 587 interviews with police, investigators and prosecutors and paid 175 million euros in fees to his defense lawyers. Granted, this isn't a lot of money to a man whose personal fortune is estimated at 4 billion euros.
In most of the previous cases, Berlusconi was either indicted on appeal or the charges were dropped upon expiration of the statute of limitations. It is not an uncommon practice for Italian defense lawyers to deliberately drag their feet to delay the proceedings until the deadline expires, and the country's laws let them get away with this.
Berlusconi remains determined to serve out his time as prime minister until 2013. His coalition still holds a majority, albeit narrow, in parliament. Ahead of the Milan court's first procedural hearing on April 6, parliament passed, in a 314-to-302 vote, a motion calling on the Constitutional Court to hand over the abuse of office case to a "tribunal of ministers," expected to give Berlusconi a fairer trial.
It could take the Constitutional Court up to six months to make its decision. The magistrates in Milan will not have to adjourn for that period, although they might do so out of deference to the high court.
If the Constitutional Court decides to transfer the abuse of office case to the tribunal of ministers, but parliament rejects this ruling, all the charges against Berlusconi will have to be dropped.
But even if he is convicted on both counts (sex with an underage prostitute, which is punishable by 1.5 to 3 years of imprisonment, and abuse of office, carrying a prison term of up to 12 years), Berlusconi will not serve time. Prison sentences for these types of crimes were de facto abolished in Italy in 1970.
Should he get a five-year sentence, though, the incumbent premier will be barred from public office for good. Which, obviously, won't be good news for the 74-year-old, who is hoping to run for president after his term as prime minister expires.
It remains to be seen whether Berlusconi will manage to get through this new trial unscathed. But one thing is clear: Italy will not lack for juicy news in the months to come.
The views expressed in this article are the author's and may not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
