For those who did not grow up like me in Berlusconi's Italy, he was an interesting character and in many ways a precursor of today's politics. When Trump came to rise, I felt many aspects were similar: both very rich entrepreneurs, arrogant personalities, a tendency to go against well established rules, personal attacks on opponents, an admiration for strongmen (Berlusconi had a clear crush on Putin), tax creativity, laws purposefully written for himself and his friends, and of course exploiting partisan news outlets. Berlusconi's career took a turn when he developed Mediaset to be a large TV company that could compete with national public TV, and still does, while offering a load of trash to the public. He was many times under investigation, sometimes convicted without ever going to jail, and many times exploiting the statute of limitations to avoid conviction by dragging the trial along for years.
His party was essentially founded upon him and his personality, and is currently one of the parties in the government coalition, with a relatively minor share, I expect voted by older people nostalgic of his era. We will not miss him -- but in hindsight we have seen even worse characters in the last 10 years.
I am Italian and I dislike Berlusconi. That said it must be recognized that all of Italy's issues were already there before him. We can't really say that Italy has worsened with him but we can surely say that it hasn't got any better. There were a lot of expectations in 1994 that he was going to change Italy and bring the liberal revolution it sorely needs. Alas, none of them were met.
You could argue that the rise of Trump is not really anything new; Italy has had Berlusconi in politics since the early 90ies, and there are a lot of similarities:
Berlusconi: Has alleged links to the Mafia, owns most of the popular media in the country, regularly hosts orgies with suspiciously young looking girls, open to more than a little bribery...
Funny fact, in 2013, Italy actually banned Silvio Berlusconi from holding public office for 6 years. But, that doesn't stop him from participating and trying to win elections anyways...
I get the picture very much, having lived in Italy on and off over the past 15 years. You can say what you want about Berlusconi (and I regularly do), but you can't lay all the blame at his feet, either. Romano Prodi managed to beat him twice at the polls, despite all his media power. Those people are arguing for that decision with their own twisted logic and of their own volition.
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