Italy: The leader we loved to mock
Berlusconi mesmerized us, said Massimo Gramellini at La Stampa.
Massimo Gramellini
La Stampa
What are we going to do without Silvio Berlusconi? asked Massimo Gramellini. I have spent my entire career as a journalist covering the mogul turned prime minister, who dominated Italian politics for 17 years. In the 1980s, when he was the owner of the soccer team AC Milan, he seemed “the classic Milanese figure we call a cumenda, a brash and successful man surrounded by servile aides.” He used to whip off his expensive coat and toss it behind him, sure that “there was always someone ready to catch it.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Later we learned that there were two Berlusconis: the laughing, joking one, and the shadowy figure who somehow finagled multimillion-dollar loans while still in his 20s. We laughed when he insisted on a soft-focus lens to hide his wrinkles on camera, but even as we were appalled by him, many of us secretly wanted to be him.
Berlusconi mesmerized us. “Think about how many times, my fellow Italians, you have thought about him in the last few years. Surely more than you have thought about your mother-in-law.” Arguing about him was the national sport: “No one else has divided Italy and Italians the way he has.” Politics will be deadly dull without him.

Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.