The sexual scandals of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi are bordering on bizarre, say Sutanu Guru & Saurabh Kumar Shahi
During an electoral rally in 2006:
“I will try to meet your expectations and I promise from now on, two and half months of absolute sexual abstinence until Election Day on April 9”
During a meeting with New York Stock Exchange officials and investors in 2003:
“Italy is now a great country to invest in…today we have fewer communists and those who are still there deny having been one…Another reason to invest in Italy is that we have beautiful secretaries…superb girls”
While denying in June, 2009 that he paid an ‘escort’ money to spend the night with him:
“I have never paid a woman…I have never understood what satisfaction there is if the pleasure of conquest is absent”
You have guessed wrong. These outrageous statements have
not been made by a Hollywood star or a punk brat who has made waves in the world of rap music. Nor is he a Richard Branson style flamboyant entrepreneur who loves to flaunt ‘beautiful’ women even as he makes billions. Nor is he the promoter of a soft porn Empire a la Hugh Heffner.
He happens to be Silvio Berlusconi, the democratically elected Prime Minister of Italy, arguably the most economically prosperous and successful country of Europe in recent times. And yes, God knows how many males across the world who seek salvation and resurrection of a different kind through Viagra will be flaming red with envy when they get to know that Berlusconi is almost 75-years-old.
As life expectancy grows around the world, Berlusconi is living proof that carnal expectations seem to be inextricably linked. This media tycoon turned right-wing politician has a knack of getting away with virtually anything. He flirts flagrantly with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He casually and contemptuously insults leaders of other countries and claims he was just joking. And he wins elections. It seems that voters in Italy have consistently chosen to overlook the vaudeville escapades of their leader; perhaps just as American citizens rewarded Bill Clinton with unprecedented approval ratings after he was almost impeached for his White House dalliances with the intern Monica Lewinsky.
But this theatre of the absurd might just be beginning to unravel for Berlusconi. In May, 2009, his long suffering second wife Veronica Lario publicly announced that she was filing for divorce. The last straw apparently was Berlusconi attending the birthday party of 18-year-old Noemi Letizia, a ‘bombshell’ who loves to call him papa and loves even more to spend time with him. Letizia is sure that ‘Papa’ will sponsor her career either as a showgirl or a politician (Berlusconi created a storm this year when he nominated young and attractive girls to contest elections for the European Parliament. He has gone on record to say that right-wing women politicians are “more beautiful and that the Left has no taste even when it comes to women”).
Berlusconi's wife lamented that the Prime Minister of Italy had not even bothered to attend the 18th birthday bash of his own son and claimed she “cannot remain with a man who consorts with minors… and is not well”. Since then, newspapers and other media outlets have unleashed a frenzy of stories of the escapades of Berlusconi. The Man has retaliated by suing many of them but has failed to stop the growing tide of titillating stories about his adventures. And finally, it does appear that voters in Italy might just be getting tired of all this theatre.
For us in India, this might appear comic, hilarious and even ethereally unreal (After all, can you imagine even a state level leader – forget the Prime Minister – of India getting embroiled in such deliciously juicy and salacious scandals that are reported by India’s 24 hour news channels with relish?). But there are serious issues that lie buried below the brouhaha over Berlusconi. And the most important one is about the conduct and behaviour of a public representative and a leader. It is about the role of Caesar’s wife and the old tale about her need to be above suspicion. Should a leader be “infallible” when it comes to his or her personal life/ Should a leader set an example for all other citizens by consistently displaying “family values”?
Traditionally, there has been a deep divide between continental Europe and the Anglo-Saxon countries – particularly United Kingdom and the United States of America. In the latter, it has always been the kiss of death for a political career if a married politician is ‘found’ to be cavorting with the ‘other woman’. Not many of you will perhaps recall, but there was a promising Democrat politician called Gary Hart whose Presidential ambitions died in the late 1980s when the ‘paparazzi caught him in the act’. Back in the 1960s, many a career in Britain was doomed to infamy and exile when it was discovered that the Soviet spy agency KGB was using the ‘other woman’ to ‘compromise’ public leaders. (India, of course, is firmly in the Anglo-Saxon alliance of morality).
In continental Europe, both the media and the voters seem to be far more relaxed. It is only long after he finished his Presidency that the French media revealed that Francois Mitterand had fathered a love child. And the French didn’t really bother when their President Nicolas Sarkozy divorced his wife and married the Italian model Carla Bruni. Nor have the Italians been very upset with the calisthenics of their leader Berlusconi. But the tide seems to be turning now and the ageing Berlusconi might just realise that too much of a good thing can be bad for your career. Incidentally, it was about 20 years ago that Berlusconi divorced his first wife and married Veronica Lario. Interestingly, his first glimpse of Veronica was as a topless artiste on stage.
During an electoral rally in 2006:
“I will try to meet your expectations and I promise from now on, two and half months of absolute sexual abstinence until Election Day on April 9”
During a meeting with New York Stock Exchange officials and investors in 2003:
“Italy is now a great country to invest in…today we have fewer communists and those who are still there deny having been one…Another reason to invest in Italy is that we have beautiful secretaries…superb girls”
While denying in June, 2009 that he paid an ‘escort’ money to spend the night with him:
“I have never paid a woman…I have never understood what satisfaction there is if the pleasure of conquest is absent”
You have guessed wrong. These outrageous statements have
not been made by a Hollywood star or a punk brat who has made waves in the world of rap music. Nor is he a Richard Branson style flamboyant entrepreneur who loves to flaunt ‘beautiful’ women even as he makes billions. Nor is he the promoter of a soft porn Empire a la Hugh Heffner.He happens to be Silvio Berlusconi, the democratically elected Prime Minister of Italy, arguably the most economically prosperous and successful country of Europe in recent times. And yes, God knows how many males across the world who seek salvation and resurrection of a different kind through Viagra will be flaming red with envy when they get to know that Berlusconi is almost 75-years-old.
As life expectancy grows around the world, Berlusconi is living proof that carnal expectations seem to be inextricably linked. This media tycoon turned right-wing politician has a knack of getting away with virtually anything. He flirts flagrantly with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He casually and contemptuously insults leaders of other countries and claims he was just joking. And he wins elections. It seems that voters in Italy have consistently chosen to overlook the vaudeville escapades of their leader; perhaps just as American citizens rewarded Bill Clinton with unprecedented approval ratings after he was almost impeached for his White House dalliances with the intern Monica Lewinsky.
But this theatre of the absurd might just be beginning to unravel for Berlusconi. In May, 2009, his long suffering second wife Veronica Lario publicly announced that she was filing for divorce. The last straw apparently was Berlusconi attending the birthday party of 18-year-old Noemi Letizia, a ‘bombshell’ who loves to call him papa and loves even more to spend time with him. Letizia is sure that ‘Papa’ will sponsor her career either as a showgirl or a politician (Berlusconi created a storm this year when he nominated young and attractive girls to contest elections for the European Parliament. He has gone on record to say that right-wing women politicians are “more beautiful and that the Left has no taste even when it comes to women”).
Berlusconi's wife lamented that the Prime Minister of Italy had not even bothered to attend the 18th birthday bash of his own son and claimed she “cannot remain with a man who consorts with minors… and is not well”. Since then, newspapers and other media outlets have unleashed a frenzy of stories of the escapades of Berlusconi. The Man has retaliated by suing many of them but has failed to stop the growing tide of titillating stories about his adventures. And finally, it does appear that voters in Italy might just be getting tired of all this theatre.
For us in India, this might appear comic, hilarious and even ethereally unreal (After all, can you imagine even a state level leader – forget the Prime Minister – of India getting embroiled in such deliciously juicy and salacious scandals that are reported by India’s 24 hour news channels with relish?). But there are serious issues that lie buried below the brouhaha over Berlusconi. And the most important one is about the conduct and behaviour of a public representative and a leader. It is about the role of Caesar’s wife and the old tale about her need to be above suspicion. Should a leader be “infallible” when it comes to his or her personal life/ Should a leader set an example for all other citizens by consistently displaying “family values”?
Traditionally, there has been a deep divide between continental Europe and the Anglo-Saxon countries – particularly United Kingdom and the United States of America. In the latter, it has always been the kiss of death for a political career if a married politician is ‘found’ to be cavorting with the ‘other woman’. Not many of you will perhaps recall, but there was a promising Democrat politician called Gary Hart whose Presidential ambitions died in the late 1980s when the ‘paparazzi caught him in the act’. Back in the 1960s, many a career in Britain was doomed to infamy and exile when it was discovered that the Soviet spy agency KGB was using the ‘other woman’ to ‘compromise’ public leaders. (India, of course, is firmly in the Anglo-Saxon alliance of morality).
In continental Europe, both the media and the voters seem to be far more relaxed. It is only long after he finished his Presidency that the French media revealed that Francois Mitterand had fathered a love child. And the French didn’t really bother when their President Nicolas Sarkozy divorced his wife and married the Italian model Carla Bruni. Nor have the Italians been very upset with the calisthenics of their leader Berlusconi. But the tide seems to be turning now and the ageing Berlusconi might just realise that too much of a good thing can be bad for your career. Incidentally, it was about 20 years ago that Berlusconi divorced his first wife and married Veronica Lario. Interestingly, his first glimpse of Veronica was as a topless artiste on stage.
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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative
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