NEWSWEEK – L’ASCESA E CADUTA DI BERLUSCONI

L’AMICO AMERICANO, IL SETTIMANALE EUROPEO DI NEWSWEEK LO HA SBATTUTO IN COPERTINA CON UN TITOLO CATTIVO: WHY SILVIO ISN’T SMILING? PERCHÉ SILVIO NON SORRIDE?. CERTO IL CAVALIERE NON SE LO ASPETTAVA TANTOMENO A RIDOSSO DELLE ELEZIONI. IL SETTIMANALE AMERICANO FA UNA SPIETATA ANALISI DI COME HA GOVERNATO E DEI DANNI CHE HA CAUSATO ALL’ITALIA E ALL’EUROPA. SECONDO IL NEWSWEEK L’IDEA DI BERLUSCONI PER RIVITALIZZARE L’ECONOMIA ERA DI “RIDURRE LE TASSE E DI AUMENTARE LA SPESA PUBBLICA” MA NON HA FUNZIONATO!
IL PROBLEMA REALE CHE PONE BERLUSCONI È ECONOMICO!
L’ARTICOLO È COSÌ RIASSUNTO:

1. LA MACCHINA POLITICA DI BERLUSCONI È ALLO SFASCIO.


2. IL SUO PRIMO DIBATTITO TELEVISIVO È STATO UN DISASTRO.


3. LA SUA COALIZIONE E IL SUO GOVERNO SONO FUORI CONTROLLO.


4. BERLUSCONI STA ATTACCANDO ORMAI ANCHE LA GRANDE IMPRESA - NOCCIOLO DEI SUOI SOSTENITORI IERI - SEMPRE PIÙ PREOCCUPATA PER QUEL CHE SEMBRA L'INARRESTABILE DECLINO ITALIANO.


5. L’ULTIMO SONDAGGIO LO VEDE SOTTO DI 3,5 A 5 PUNTI E LA DISTANZA È AUMENTATA INVECE DI DIMINUIRE.


6. IL SUO SORRISO DI VITTORIA CHE FU A LUNGO IL SUO EMBLEMA, ASSOMIGLIA SEMPRE PIÙ AD UNA SMORFIA


7. BERLUSCONI SPERA CHE ALL’ULTIMO MOMENTO GLI ITALIANI CI RIPENSINO E TORNINO A VOTARE IL SUO CARNEVALE POLITICO RAPPRESENTATO DAL SUO CIRCO.

LA CONCLUSIONE DELL'ARTICOLO È SCONFORTANTE, NON TANTO PER IL PREMIER, QUANTO PER GLI ITALIANI E PER IL SUO SUCCESSORE: LE DIFFICOLTÀ DEL PAESE SONO COSÌ FORMIDABILI CHE IL SUO SUCCESSORE DOVRÀ ESSERE QUASI UN SUPERUOMO PER FARCELA.
CHISSÀ SE IL CAVALIERE PENSA CHE ANCHE NEWSWEEK SIA CONTRO DI “LUI” PIUTTOSTO CHE CONTRO LA “SUA POLITICA”, FATTO NORMALE IN DEMOCRAZIA.
Raffaele

NEWSWEEK INTERNATIONAL
The Rise and Fall of Berlusconi
By Christopher Dickey
April 3, 2006

1. Berlusconi's political machine is in meltdown.


2. The candidate's first televised debate was a disaster.


3. His coalition and his cabinet are out of control.


4. Instead of tending to allies, he's battling the big business interests that ought to be his core support—all of them alarmed by Italy's seemingly unstoppable economic slide.


5. The latest polls show him behind by 3.5 to 5 points, a gap that has lately widened rather than narrowed.


6. The winning smile that has long been his emblem looks increasingly like a rictus.


7. Berlusconi's last best hope is that the last moment Italians will return to the long-running political carnival that has been Silvio's Circus.

It would be premature to count him out, Yet Europe wants him gone, for good reason.
Partly it's his government's uncanny knack for infuriating European leaders and for his last judiciary issues for even his ally Tony Blair has been rattled by accusations that the Italian magnate involved the husband of a British cabinet member in money laundering and tax evasion, a charge both men deny.

The real danger that Berlusconi's Italy poses for Europe, however, is economic.
From an already anemic growth rate of 1.8 percent in 2001, Italy slowed to 0.0 last year. Niente!

Worries are growing that the country will be an increasing drag on the rest of the European Union. "There's no doubt that Italy is the sick man of Europe," says economist Tito Boeri of the prestigious Bocconi University business school in Milan.

Berlusconi blames sept11 and the euro but doesn't go so far as to say he'd pull out of the euro zone, if re-elected. Berlusconi recognizes as well as anyone that Italy's economic decline would probably accelerate under more-populist policies. "Deficits would go sky-high," says Antonio Missiroli, chief policy analyst at the European Policy Center in Brussels. "You could end up with a sort of Argentina-like crisis."

Il Cavaliere has made almost no effort to introduce the sort of serious reforms that could reverse the slide. "In his five years there were neither big privatizations nor structural reforms," says Boeri. "His idea was just to raise public expenditure and cut taxes to revitalize demand." It didn't work.

Many European businessmen now worry that, eventually, Italy's economy will deteriorate to such an extent that the country could be forced out of the euro zone even if Berlusconi doesn't really want to go that route—and even if Prodi, Mr. Europe, is elected.

Even if Prodi wins by a substantial margin, he will have a hard time governing thanks to changes in the electoral law pushed through by Berlusconi. Italy has returned to the old system of proportional representation that created such unstable coalitions in the past.

Italy's trade deficit for 2005 surpassed 10 billion, a result of both skyrocketing energy costs and rising labor expenses. European budget deficits are supposed to be held to 3 percent of GDP annually. Several countries have exceeded that, but Italy, at about 4 percent, is among the worst…CONTINUE