Berlusconi sleeping the sleep of the just, down in Texas

Thu, 25 April, 2013. During the George W Bush Presidential Center dedication ceremony in Dallas, Texas, Silvio Berlusconi takes his usual nap.

Yeah, we know, it's not really a novelty; the last time Silvio Berlusconi fell asleep during the inauguration of a monument to the deported of the Shoah was the end of January, on the International Holocaust Remembrance Day when the media mogul, after praising Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

Sleeping in the Texas' sun

But his political career has been marked by naps and forty winks, one of the most celebrated one dates back at Karol Józef Wojtyła's (aka Pope John Paul II) beatification (nope, we haven't written a post on that, but will do).

Still, the picture – published by the Huffington Post and running for the #SundayCaptionContest on Twitter – is quite funny, isn't it?

At the event – a dedication of a museum and a library that preserves George W's historic trinkets from the White House, the George W Bush Presidential Centre – were present all the living USA president (Barack Obama, HW Bush, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter), and a group of foreign politicians, amongst them former French president Nicolas Sarkozy and ex-prime minister of Spain José María Aznar, who was sitting beside the sleeping Berlusconi, only Italian of the party (some Italians might say 'thank God').

Remarkable, that as Silvio was blissfully sleeping, his party – the People of Liberty party (PdL) – manage to clinch all the major ministries of a so-called coalition government, led by Italian Democratic Party's Enrico Letta (who – incidentally – happens to be the nephew of Berlusconi's right-hand man; coincidences?). Is he sleeping with an eye open? The photo doesn't prove it.

Sleeping in the Parliament (Sandro Bondi pokes Silvio)

Anyhow, the former Italian prime minister might have missed George W Bush's emotional tears, all the jokes and wisecracks (Obama's predecessor line is likely to become a quote to cite "One of the benefits of freedom is that people can disagree. It's fair to say I created plenty of opportunities to exercise that right."), but Italy seems bound to remain in his firm claws.