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| Europe |
| Berlusconi launches ’puppeteer’ libel case |
| 2003-09-16 |
| (Great Pictures) Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi has launched a 15-million euro libel suit against the country’s main opposition leader. Piero Fassino had accused the prime minister of being the "puppet master" behind allegations that senior left-wingers creamed off millions of euros from a business deal. BWAHAHAhahaha! Dance, my minions! Mr Berlusconi’s lawsuit, quoted by sources, said the comments could not pass unchallenged. "It is unacceptable...for assertions to be made that the current prime minister instigated, or worse, was directly involved in calumny," Mr Berlusconi’s suit said, according to the sources. Mr Fassino, leader of the Democrats of the Left party, now says he will seek the same amount - 15 million euros - from a paper edited by the prime minister’s brother Paolo. The paper, Il Giornale, has frequently run details of the allegations on its front page. Pure coincidence, I assure you... The left-wing politicians at the centre of the allegations include European Commission president Romano Prodi, former foreign minister Lamberto Dini and Mr Fassino himself. All three deny wrongdoing. |
| Posted by:mojo |
| #5 I'll go for the fewer funny stories in that case. A team is one thing, a European country another. Berlusconi knows very well how to use his bizarre behaviour to mask his true self as a corrupt, mafioso wannabe "Bacterian" dictator in an excellent suit. |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2003-9-16 10:53:50 PM |
| #4 From the perspective of a US observer. The guy looks like a local deal-maker slightly out of his league. The Cincinati Reds had an owner named Marge Shcott that had the same type of personality. It was good to have her on your side, but she was always putting her foot in her mouth. She used to says things like: 1. Hitler started out good he just went too far 2. My players can't wear earrings. It's a new fad but in my day any guy with an earing was a little bit funny. She did a bunch of embarassing stuff and eventually was forced to sell the team. There were fewer funny stories in the paper after they retired her. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-9-16 10:33:35 PM |
| #3 Not likely. First of all, Berlusconi believes (and says) that all Italian judges are leftist traitors and then, if he could really convince the judges, Prodi would beat Berlusconi with his own game and refuse judges and court and get a new trial somewhere else and so on... I feel like sueing Berlusconi myself. If Mussolini really didn't kill anyone I am just wondering how all these Italian Jews ever made it to the German camps (many before 1943 btw) I find the Rantburg adulation for Berlusconi (just because he supported Iraq) rather annoying. Imagine a German leader saying the Hitler after all wasn't really such a bad guy. And imagine that this guy not only controls over 80 percent of the media (television, newspapers, radio). He owns them. |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2003-9-16 7:28:42 PM |
| #2 What if B, during the court case, can prove the allegations? I'm all for Prodi getting tossed overboard. Some of the stuff he's proposed makes me glad I'm here. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-9-16 5:56:56 PM |
| #1 Schroeder Chirac and Blair to meet in Berlin to discuss Iraq. Berlusconi (president of the EU) not invited. What goes around comes around... Maybe his latest gaffe about Mussolini who "never killed anyone" has something to do with it? |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2003-9-16 4:27:28 PM |