You are in:
- Contents » Heroes and Villains
Sticks & Stones
There are some thin skins in the European Parliament. Yesterday, Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi made an unpleasant joke at the expense of a German socialist MEP.
As we reported, all hell broke out. The German chancellor has already demanded an apology. The front pages of Europe's newspapers, which yesterday grumbled about how Italy's presidency threatened the EU's 'values' are today jubilant to find their worst fears confirmed.
But let's look back a few months. It's not long ago that George Bush was being compared to Adolf Hitler. Even a German minister tried this one on, and forced her boss to make a grovelling apology to Dubya. Before that, an Italian communist compared Berlusconi himself to Osama Bin Laden - both, he said, were cut from the same anti-communist cloth.
Berlusconi's response, sadly, is unrecorded.
It hasn't been all bad news for Berlusconi, however. The Times rounds up some of his 'gaffes'. EURSOC has a sneaking regard for the Italian PM and suspects that these gaffes are more likely to endear the old rogue to the EU's citizens, if not its leaders. Here are some of his Greatest Hits.
He told Anders Fogh Rassmussen, the Danish Prime Minister, that he was so good-looking he should “have an affair with my wife”.
“They missed a good opportunity to shut up,” Signor Berlusconi said referring to the French and their criticism of his decision not to meet Palestinian leaders during a trip to Israel. (A direct reference to Jacques Chirac's outburst after several eastern European leaders expressed support for George Bush's Iraq policy).
“I’m sorry for having said Communists eat babies. But if you want, I can organise a conference in which I will prove Communists have really eaten babies and done even worse things.”
In the run-up to the 2001 election: “I have little hair because my brain is so big it pushes (the hair) out.”
Elsewhere in The Times, economist Anatole Kaletsky praises Berlusconi for promoting a political vision for the EU that is remarkably similar to Britain's.
The two countries, he says, are natural allies and could provide a welcome counterweight and rallying point for other nations weary of the EU's Franco-German axis.
Kaletsky concludes
I suspect, however, that Berlusconi may be closer to the true Italian culture than most of his critics, even in his own country. As a Briton and a European I certainly hope so. An outward-looking, liberal, decentralised Europe, inspired by the cultural openness and individualism of Britain, Italy and the other peripheral countries, could be a truly exciting place to live in the coming decades.
