Sorry, Italy, You're Stuck With Berlusconi

His government may fall, but bet that he'll be back. Again
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 16, 2010 1:25 PM CST
Sorry, Italy, You're Stuck With Berlusconi
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi at a press conference in Rome earlier this month.   (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

Stop us if you've heard this before: Silvio Berlusconi is in political crisis. Following the resignation of four top officials yesterday, the prime minister (take your pick of scandals here) is in real danger of having his government toppled. Italy's president will now meet with the speakers of parliaments to see whether new elections will be necessary, reports Bloomberg. Surprise, surprise, writes Tobias Jones in the Guardian. Once again, "the country finds itself in a stalemate, unable to continue with Berlusconi but unable to replace him."

This has been going on since he emerged as a political dynamo in the mid-'90s. "Getting rid of him isn't simply a question of an election or a political coup," writes Jones. "He has lost before and has bounced back," which leaves only two ways for Italian politics to rid itself of him: Quite simply, he needs to die, or the country needs "to undergo a thorough, programmatic deBerlusconification, an attempt to return to reality after 20 years of his televisual brainwashing. The first, I'm afraid, is more likely than the second, but it still seems a very long way off." (More Silvio Berlusconi stories.)

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