Berlusconi's remote control

The left opposition has done nothing to stop Italy's prime minister using his media networks to dominate the way Italians think

In any other European country, a prime minister like Silvio Berlusconi would have already been swept away, punished for a style of government that is dedicated to protecting his own interests as a business tycoon and demolishing the autonomy and independence of judges to ensure his impunity. His lifestyle is closer to that of an Oriental potentate than to the devout (and hypocritical) supporter of the traditional "God, the motherland and the family", which is the mantra of the right. Needless to say, Italian conservatives mouth these statements to pander to the Vatican. Mussolini, too, paid lip service to being a proud champion of the family, idolising women as angels of the hearth, whereas in reality he was a boastful womaniser. Berlusconi's problems on the domestic stage are mostly to do with rifts in his own governing coalition... Guardian