Silvio Berlusconi and the necessity of bribery

Thursday, February 14, 2013 (Valentine's Day). Silvio Berlusconi commented the recent corruption scandals inItaly slamming as "moralising" and stating that bribes are just a "necessary part of the business".

If you have been wondering why Italy is the last Western European country in the corruption ranking (according to the non-governmental organization Transparency International), well Silvio Berlusconi has answer to that, by declaring that bribery is not a crime, but just a “commission” to be paid (by the way, Silvio has been condemned for fraud in the past...), as he was interviewed on Rai3 television programme “Agorà”.

How to bewitch people on the radio?

«Stop moralising» said the former Italian prime minister, «one cannot be an entrepreneur on a global scale without bribes». Berlusconi himself has been accused of bribery, for instance in the Mills case.

Once again, the former Italian prime minister tried to please some of his potential voters, by saying something with his foot in the mouth (“if anything, the media will talk about me”, he thinks, and he is rarely wrong, and quite ubiquitously present on almost any Italian headlines), in a moment when – due to the recent scandals involving Italian conglomerate Finmeccanica and Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the oldest bank in the world – some observers (and prime minister Mario Monti) reckon Italy is in a worse situation than during the Mani Pulite era, in the beginning of the 90s.

Sweethearts on Valentine's Day

So Transparency International became a bit  wary the the concept perhaps wasn't so clear   and decided to publish a reminder to Italy (not only to Mr Berlusconi) that bribery is against the law, just in case.

Most probably the guy that provoke the statement didn't even realised it, when finished creating his usual share of turmoil, Silvio relaxed and went out for dinner with his girlfriend and would-be First Lady Francesca Pascale. Jokes (as usual) and prayers were served by the former premier.

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Silvio Berlusconi and the would-be First Lady

Tuesday, 25 December 2012. As Silvio Berlusconi reaches a settlement with his previous wife, the alleged new fiancée Francesca Pascale is being raised to become the official partner of the Knight, starting with the official photos.

Official pictures of the would-be First Lady

25 December 2012, Christmas day, was the day of the final settlement of the legal separation between Veronica Lario and Silvio Berlusconi (even though he will try and recover a part of the 36m euro a bunch of "feminist and communist" judges sentenced him to pay), and the day of the first official photo shoot of the apparent heir of Mrs Lario, Miss Francesca Pascale, at the villa of the former prime minister and billionaire in Arcore, near Milan.

Four of the photos were published by Italian news agency ANSA, in order to let the public know how the young Francesca is taking seriously the new role, (apparently) hoping to fully take over Mr Berlusconi's former wife place and fully join the family as soon as possible...

The engagement with 27-year-old Francesca Pascale was announced by Silvio last December, on his own TV network's Canale 5's Sunday afternoon Domenica Live, on 16 December 2012. The event has been promptly added to Silvio's page on Wikipedia.

Silvio Berlusconi and the uber-fast growing Twitter followers

Tuesday, 1 January 2013 (Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God). Waking up in the morning of the first day of the new year, Silvio Berlusconi finds out his Twitter account has gained 60,000 followers in one night.

@Berlusconi2013 Twitter account, before the miracle

It took some time for Silvio Berlusconi to get involved in the fast growing social media Twitter, being overtook by a generally traditionalist fellow politician, Pope Benedict XVI, with his @Pontifex, and competitor #1, member of the Senate of Italy and prime minister candidate Mario Monti, with his @SenatoreMonti.

But when he went into it, he did it with his usual vigour.

Starting in the beginning of December 2012, the account @berlusconi2013 had been attracting around seven thousand followers, until the new year's eve miracle: in one magic night Silvio's fan on Twitter grew to over 70,000. It's not a scandal, just a remarkable event.

According to some sources, 70 per cent of the... 73,504 fans (update: 4 January, 10:54 GMT) is a fake, and 80 per cent are South American and Arab accounts – perhaps not very interest in the political events of Italy. How many of them are women? Couldn't find any data about it, but we bet it's more than a few...











Pato and Barbara Berlusconi smile on Twitter



The former prime minister of Italy's Twitter account launched also a kind of “I don't vote for the Left” campaign, by introducing a @iononvotolasx user and ionovotolasx.com internet site (currently not available). These links seemed to have disappeared in the most recent hours, replaced by the ForzaSilvio.it link (“Go Silvio!”).






But The Kight is not the only member of the Berlusconi family to have discovered the tweets: in the meanwhile, also Silvio's daughter – Barbara Berlusconi – appeared on Twitter, publishing a photo just to prove that her relationship with former AC Milan's footballer Alexandre Pato is still on (even though her father sold the player to Brazil's Corinthians).






Some think that Silvio might be totally unaware of what's going on, and the initiation to the twitterati could really be a gift from the founder of the “Silvio ci manchi” (“Silvio we miss you”) club, the tycoon official fiancée Francesca Pascale.






What would be of the President (he has always been president of something) without his women?



(Update: On 4 June 2013, at 13:52 GMT, the Twitter account @berlusconi2013 has 59,290 followers. At the same time @Pontifex has been occupied by a Francis, apparently a migrant from South America. Where has Joseph Aloisius - aka Benedict XVI - gone? Anyhow, the account has now 2.5m followers... Finally, Barbara Berlusconi's last tweet dates back to 11 August 2012.).

Silvio Berlusconi and the two fiancées

Saturday, December 22, 2012. Katarina Knezevic gives an interview to an Italian daily newspaper saying that she will become the wife of Silvio Berlusconi, not Francesca Pascale.

Katarina Knezevic, Montenegrin model and alleged "fidanzata" of Silvio

The story with Francesca Pascale is “a heap of crap” according to 22-year-old Katarina Knezevic, the Montenegrin model who swears she is the real Silvio Berlusconi's fiancée, or “fidanzata” as they say in Italian.

Francesca is just an electoral stunt, “the result of an agreement” – according to the Balkan woman, who was a contestant on Miss Montenegro pageant – she will never be the wife of Silvio Berlusconi. “I am still in love with him” she added, in her interview to the leftist daily newspaper “Il Fatto Quotidiano” (“The Daily Fact”), “for a man like him I could kill and I'd be ready to die”.

Silvio with official fiancée, Francesca

Katarina is “a very dangerous crazy person”, "gypsy" a "runaway from home", used to say to each other over the phone the bunga-bunga princesses, Nicole Minetti, Barbara Faggioli, Imane Fadil (actually on 9 August 2012 was Moroccan Imane who spontaneously told judge Ilda Boccassini that the Montenegrin beauty was Berlusconi's real girlfriend).

Emilio Fede also told about a dramatic scene at the home of Italy's former prime minister, when Katarina “made a nasty scene of jealousy” about the presence of other women, and jumped from the stairs of the villa, got hurt, and “Silvio Berlusconi had to retire, with Katarina, in order to console her.

Actually there are no public photos of Berlusconi with Katarina Knezevic.

Silvio's infatuation of for the young woman was testified also by Nicole Minetti and Clotilde Strada on a famous phone call, intercepted during the sex-scandal Rubygate investigations (the video is on our YouTube Channel).

But the story of a long-lasting engagement was revealed by Silvio Berlusconi only recently (during Canale 5's Domenica Live TV show, led by Barbara D'Urso), after rumours assigned the role to Roberta Bonasia, Nicole Minetti, Evelina Manna and other girls and women.

Only time will tell the truth.

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Video from our YouTube Channel: Berluschannel 

Silvio Berlusconi and the engagement

Sunday, December 16, 2012. On an interview aired by his own Canale 5 TV broadcaster Silvio Berlusconi reveals he is engaged to 27-year-old Francesca Pascale, half a century younger than him.

An all-smile Silvio Berlusconi announces his engagement, in December 2012

Sitting in a couch at Barbara D'Urso's “Domenica Live” TV Show, Silvio Berlusconi discloses being engaged to 27-year-old Neapolitan girl (just like the anchor woman. I mean she is Neapolitan too, not 27-year-old) Francesca Pascale, a former show girl of a local TV broadcaster, Telecapri.

Silvio Berlusconi alleged engagement led to a bride-hunt back in 2011, Francesca Pascale was one of the rumoured women (those who bet on the apparently strong candidacy of Roberta Bonasia, might have lost their money).

"She is 27 years old, with very solid values, beautiful on the outside and even more beautiful on the inside.”, said the former Italian prime minister, who also confessed the 49-year age difference between the two is a “little bit excessive”.

Silvio drew a beautiful picture of his sweetheart, "She is very close to me, she loves me very much and I feel the same.” he said with a voice almost broke by emotion. “My daughter Marina appreciates her and loves her very much too.".

Video from our YouTube Channel: Berluschannel 

During the interview, Silvio would grab the opportunity to describe the Ruby trial as an "incredible machination," he added: "It was a justification to put in place a giant operation for defamation against me and against the Italian government, including on an international level.”.

Barbara would just listen and nod, as Silvio Berlusconi story unfolded.

In the end, Canale 5 is family, isn't it?

Silvio Berlusconi and Francesca Pascale driving away.