Berlusconi becomes prime minister of Italy

Berlusconi becomes prime minister of Italy

There are three important people in Italy.

One is the pope

the other is padre pio (now Saint Pio)

and the third is Silvio Berlusconi (he is the wealtiest man in Italy)

Italy is joining the third world, where it will have a two class system, the very wealthy, and the very poor looking for handouts, and people are very fortunate to have Mr, Berlusconi as their leader, because he dishes a lot of handouts to the starving poor.

Sammy

Granny says his conscience is botherin' him `cause he knows he done wrong...
:p
Berlusconi 'fears prison sentence'
June 22, 2008 - ITALIAN Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who pushed for an amendment to suspend tens of thousands of legal cases including one against him, fears landing up in jail, his political ally Umberto Bossi has said in a newspaper interview.

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“The problem is that he (Berlusconi) exaggerates a little, he is too obsessed with these things, he is too afraid of ending up in prison," Mr Bossi, head of the Northern League, told La Repubblica.

In a legal amendment that was passed by the Senate on Wednesday, court cases involving serious offences punishable by more than 10 years in prison would get priority handling in the Italian judicial system. Other cases would be suspended for a year - including one in Milan in which Berlusconi is accused of having given $621,000 to his British lawyer David Mills in exchange for false testimony in two cases dating back to the 1990s.

The amendment still must go through Italy’s lower house of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, before it can come into effect - but Berlusconi’s government enjoys an overall majority there. Once adopted, Berlusconi intends to put forward legislation giving judicial immunity to the five most senior figures in the Italian state - effectively enabling him to avoid conviction during his five-year mandate.

[url:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23904247-23109,00.html[/url]

Silvio can breathe easier now...
:rolleyes:
'Berlusconi bill' passed in Italy
Wednesday, 25 June 2008 - Italy’s Senate passes legislation which opponents of PM Silvio Berlusconi say will help him in his legal battles.

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The bill would freeze some long-running trials for a year, including one involving Mr Berlusconi in Milan. And the government is set to introduce another bill that will give top public figures immunity from prosecution. Mr Berlusconi has faced corruption charges in the courts for many years but has always protested his innocence. The prime minister argues he has long been a victim of politically-biased judges and prosecutors. Although Mr Berlusconi was found guilty in one corruption case, the verdict was overturned on appeal and other cases were dismissed under statutes of limitation. Now he is taking strong action to try to avoid his new term of office being upset by further court appearances.

Political attack

On Friday, Mr Berlusconi’s cabinet will table a new bill suspending any trials of the five top public office holders, including the prime minister and the president, during the period in which they serve the Italian state. A similar law passed by Mr Berlusconi five years ago was subsequently thrown out by the country’s constitutional court and proceedings against him were reactivated. The decree passed by Italy’s Senate, the upper house of parliament, will freeze for a year trials concerning alleged offences which carry a sentence of less than 10 years. Italy’s National Magistrates' Association urged the government to abandon this measure, which it said would affect some 100,000 trials and cause chaos in the administration of justice.

Mr Berlusconi’s personal lawyer, a member of parliament who helped draft the new legislation, told members of the Foreign Press Association that the new measures were perfectly fair. He pointed out that those accused could ask for their trial to go ahead normally, which he said Mr Berlusconi would do in one pending case. Nonetheless, Mr Berlusconi is coming under increasing political attack for concentrating on his own personal legal problems at the beginning of his new stint as head of government, rather than on such important national issues as the future of the almost bankrupt national airline Alitalia and the Naples rubbish crisis.

[url:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/europe/7472521.stm[/url]