NYRB on Berlusconi

The New York Review of Books has a brilliant piece on Berlusconi entitled 'The Berlusconi show.' Have a look here.

It should be read by everyone, it is balanced and well argued. In particular, conservative and right wing italians should read this essay as it shows that Berlusconi is damaging the right on top of damaging the whole country.

Here's the tragic conclusion:

"One of the many tragedies of the Berlusconi era is that Italy genuinely needed a serious conservative movement to challenge some of the orthodoxies and rigidities of Italian life and to try to end the incestuous relationship between business and politics. This would have forced the center-left to come up with ways to make Italy's welfare state more affordable, efficient, and less of a drag on the economy. Berlusconi, the country's biggest monopolist, was the last person in Italy to undertake such a task. The tragedy of Berlusconi is greatest in fact for Italy's right wing, which remains in a state of arrested development, utterly dependent on one man, his company, and its interests—a situation that seems likely to continue indefinitely. After Italy's high court confirmed the election result, Berlusconi announced he had no intention of congratulating Prodi or recognizing the new government's legitimacy. He vowed to stymie it in every way possible. "They won't," he said, "be able to govern; we will make them ineffective.... Without our consent in the Senate they won't be able to pass a single bill.""