matthias j.

It's fashionable in Europe to laugh at the idiocy of Bush, I guess it makes people feel better and he certainly deserves to be mocked. But doing that we seem to forget we have plenty of idiots on this side of the Atlantic too, take Berlusconi. He's a crook, a liar, a thief and prime minister of Italy. His coallition includes a neo-fascist party, he thinks Islam is retarded (sic) and his main interest is his personal fortune and ego. And as if that's not enough: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3037386.stm

Come on, the unbelievable stupidity and arrogance of his behaviour. The bloody irony to hear this from a man who appointed ministers that consider Mussolini a nice chap.

I truly hope Bossi will leave the coallition and the leftwing parties stop quarreling and start regrouping, because right now I'm ashamed to be European...

Bill

The United States survived Nixon (crook, liar, thief, ....), and I suspect that both Italy and Europe will survive Berlusconi. Good people seem to come to power just often enough to keep up hope.

== Bill

jman0904

Good people or good leaders?
'Cause either way you cut it, we've been going through a dry spell on this side of the pond for quite some time now.
(USA side)

Farren

I too think Berlusconi is Europe's worst premier, and there's something inherently rotten with a man with so much media control being a politician. Its like the power mad senator in Oliver Stone's Wild Palms. Politicians shouldn't have broad business interests in media.

Interesting, that he was one of Bush's "Coalition of the Willing"

RLV

Agreed. It's a disgrace to have a mafiosi as the head of Europe (even if his power in that position is very limited).

Btw, I'd give second place to his buddy Aznar, Spain's president. A bit more subtle than Berslusconi in his economical-political meddling, less openly mafiosi, he nonetheless follows in his path, trying to control the judicial system, the economy and the media from the government. He's more ideologically to the right than Berlusconi (who hasn't much of any ideology beyond power and money, anyway).

Aznar was another willing moron, too.

But Chirac, Europe's crook number #3, was against Bush, so it balances a bit the score.


RLV

Lamunus

I'm pretty appalled by what he actually said. We must assume he had no idea of the horror his remark would engender in modern Germany. The Social Democrat MEP is from a party that was banned under Hitler, and many of the man's forbears actually ended up in concentration camps. And now I hear the Parliament will freeze ties with the Council, effectively preventing the creation of laws. The entire mechanics of the Union will grind to halt because that corrupt wanker is stupid enough to make an off the cuff remark in the middle of the bloody Parliament, and then too up his own arse to apologise for it. And we're meant to have moved forward in the last 60 years.

I must say though, I greatly approve of Berlusconi's (albeit rather vague) plans to pump �70 billion into European infrastructure, R&D etc, to kick start the economy. A nice bit of old fashioned Keynsian economics, Nazi outrages and fat populist Italians being stupid.. ee, it's a bit like the forties all over again, ain't it? Though at least Germany isn't mobilizing 100 Panzer divisions this time. Every cloud has a silver lining, eh?

Lamunus

Thor Q. Mada

We dare to complain about Bush because persuing a right wing expansionist policy which will bring US troops into so many locations of the world that the sun will never go under in the empire.
The closeness of corporations with the governement has nowhere been as close as in the US with the exception of nazi-Germany and fascist Italy.
Berlusconi is just a simple fool with no power at all to project his influence abroad. Italy is not going to attack Ethiopia again I would think.
He is just a thug with a big mouth, dressed in a impecable designer suit.
That he was part of the coalition of the withless speaks for itself.

matthias j.

He does have a Home Secratary that openly says illegal immigrants should be shot. He might be less dangerous to the world, he's certainly setting Italy back a decade or two (effectively destroying Operation Clean Hands by granting himself immunity etc.)

The SwampThing

Berlusconi has been known as a first rate jerk for a long time, even since long before he got elected. For those of us living on this side of the pond (Europe), we knew it all along about his racist policies and Mafia conections.It dates back to Andreotti and the fight against the "Brigate Rosse" or Red Brigades.
But it wasn�t untill recentlly that several countries adopted a diferent posture in the political scene, drifting far to the right.
We have Spain with Jos� Maria Aznar, Italy with Silvio Berlusconi, Portugal with Dur�o Barroso and the alliance with the extreme right wing PP party, Austria with Jorg Haider and a few others wich escape me at the moment.
Never before have we seen the extreme right wing coming to power in so many european countries at once!

But Berlusconi is the most notorious of all. His wild and often controversial politics, combined with a loose tongue and lack of politically correct sense, makes him almost a "clownish" figure, anecdotical even!
Anyone who has seen the italian parliament sessions, will notice great similarities with this latest incident. He is used to the insults, bar fights and inuendos of the italian political scene. But he forgets that the rest of Europe doesn�t work that way.
I predict a rowdy and bumpy italian presidence. I�m not shure he will finish the job, but you can be sure there will be lots of more incidents such as this, if not worse!!
Hell, i lived in Bari Italy for almost a year and i saw quite a lot of those!
Lets just hope he doesn�t put a dent on the european resolve and determination. In the long run, that could prove disasterous, if not catastrophic!
Berlusconi�s presidency will have many people holding their breath, that�s for shure!

matthias j.

OMG, the EPPE (the union of European Christian-democrat and conservative parties) actually supports Berlusconi and demands an apoligy from Sch�ltze! This is disgusting to say the least, I guess Berlusconi and Aznar want to play it hard