Berlusconi's last attempt... or everybody go home!

Wednesday, 25 September 2013. In order to fight a “coup against the leader of the centre-right” - as Silvio Berlusconi put it, all the PDL (People of Freedom) party members involved in the government ready to resign.

“Let's go home, Angelino,” says Silvio Berlusconi, “all of us”.

After meeting up to define the next steps of a strenuous opposition against the ousting of Silvio Berlusconi, the allies of the former prime minister seem ready to resign from their posts, starting from the PDL's MPs (by the way: everything started a week after the rebirth of Forza Italia – the original Berlusconi's party – was announced, so this might sign the definitive end of PDL).

“I haven't been sleeping for 55 days” said Silvio Berlusconi (trying to make it clear that wasn't due to infamous bunga-bunga parties or any other activities involving women) “I have lost 11 kilos” (which, by the way, might have been greeted as good news from his girlfriend Francesca Pascale).

Berlusconi's going home:
will everybody really follow him?

And he added “A subversive operation has been enacted to subvert the rule of law by democratic judiciary”. A coup d'état. Thank god it's “democratic judiciary” and not an anti-democratic one.

Speaking about people ready to resign, also the finance minister Fabrizio Saccomanni said he would resign, over a controversial decision about increasing VAT in Italy, and Mr Napolitano – the Head of State – has also been mulling over his own standing down as President. A kind of “Everybody Go Home” event, reminding of the 1960 famous Italian film by Luigi Comencini about the Armistice of Cassibile of the 8th of September.

But will everybody follow Silvio?

That will most probably throw the coalition government into crisis, at least, the new declarations from Berlusconi came as the prime minister Enrico Letta was on tour in North America, trying to sell the idea of a stable and trustworthy Italy. That was cunning, wasn't it?

Ready to follow to bitter end? The participants to the «silent protest » in March 2013

A Senate committee is expected to vote on October 4 whether to boot Sen Silvio Berlusconi from parliament, after his definitive conviction for tax fraud last month. Berlusconi says the ousting would be unjust, the two appeals weren't enough for him, he still wants the European Court of Human Rights to have a say. And – many might say – if we don't manage convictions with a pinch of salt, we might end up with an empty parliament, in Italy... And - by the way – the whole thing is yet another manoeuvre of the leftists and – as Berlusconi's daughter Barbara put it – lobbies. 

So the 76-year-old billionaire-politician now seems to have pulled a hatchet out of the gamut of ideas he has been given during the past months, since his the Supreme Court decided to uphold the 4-year prison sentence. Will the Italian government end in a bit more than a week from now? How the Italian politics will survive all this? Is it going to lead to new election? And if so, who will win? Nobody knows, but for the time being PM Enrico Letta's opinion is that “It's a real shame for Italy”.