User:Ian Spackman/WIP3

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Map showing Italy
Location of Turin
  • degreesEast = 7
  • minutesEast = 53
  • secondsEast = 0
  • degreesNorth = 45
  • minutesNorth = 11
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Map showing Italy
Location of Comune di Chivasso



Comune di Chivasso
[[Image:Template:Exists|140px|Coat of arms of Comune di Chivasso]]
Municipal coat of arms
Map showing Italy
Location of Comune di Chivasso
Country Flag of Italy Italy
Region Piedmont
Province Turin (TO)
Mayor Bruno Matola
Elevation 183 m
Area 51 km²
Population
 - Total (as of 31 December 2004)
 - Density
23,675
457/km²
Time zone CET, UTC+1
Coordinates 45°11′0″N, 7°53′0″E
Gentilic chivassesi
Dialing code 011
Postal code 10034
Frazioni Montegiove, Betlemme, Torassi, Castelrosso, Pogliani, Borghetto, Mosche, Mandria, Boschetto, Pratoregio
Patron
 - Day		 Beato Angelo Carletti
11 April
Website: http://www.comune.chivasso.to.it

text as at 2006-03-10 21:26

He is the founder and the first shareholder of Fininvest, a large Italian company dealing with media and financial business. According to Forbes Magazine, Silvio Berlusconi is Italy's richest person, a self-made man with personal assets worth $12,000,000,000 (USD) in 2005, making him the world's 25th richest person [1].

Between 1986 and 2004, he was also the President of the A.C. Milan, an Italian football team. After his dictated-by-law resignation, the team didn't however elect a new president [2]

Contents

[edit] Early years

Berlusconi was born in an upper middle-class family in Milan; his father Luigi worked at a small bank, Banca Rasini, of which he became general manager in the 1960s before retiring. Silvio was the first of three children, the others being Maria Antonietta Berlusconi (born 1943) and Paolo Berlusconi (born 1949), now both entrepreneurs. Silvio takes a special pride that his father started his career in Banca Rasini as an employee and left as general manager. Palermo judges indicated Banca Rasini among those that were used for mafia money laundering, according to an interview of Michele Sindona by Nick Tosches22. EQ # Banca Rasini and money laundering.

ENDEQ

[edit] Vittorio Mangano

I Mangano left spontaneously in late 1976, concerned about Berlusconi's reputation, since many newspapers started making a scandal about his relationship to him24. EQ # (Italian) L'amico degli amici. (Marco Travaglio and Peter Gomez, 2005, BUR Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli, ISBN 88-17-00707-2).

    • References about Mangano and Berlusconi: p. XIII-XIX, 35-124, 209-225, 300-311, 699-703

ENDEQ

[edit] Current Assets

Berlusconi also owns the football club AC Milan, which some think has been an important factor in the success of his political career ("Forza Italia" means "Go Italy!") and before the party was founded it was connected to football supporters of the national team [3]

[edit] Political career

[edit] The debate about the motives

If I don't enter politics, I'm going to jail and into bankruptcy»[4]

While investigating these matters, three journalists[5]


[edit] Fall of the Berlusconi I administration

In December 1994, the Northern League left the coalition claiming that the electoral pact had not been respected, forcing Berlusconi to resign from office and moving the majority's weight to the centre-left side. The League also resented that many of his parliament members had switched to Forza Italia, allegedly called by promises of more prestigious portfolios. A coalition of opposition parties (including the League itself) then replaced him. In 1996, the interim coalition formed by Northern League and centre-left was replaced, after a new election, by a centre-leftist government (without the League) led by Romano Prodi[6].

[edit] Policies

As he founded his Forza Italia party and entered politics, Berlusconi expressed support for "freedom, the individual, family, enterprise, Italian tradition, Christian tradition and love for weaker people" [7]

Some allies of Berlusconi, especially Lega Nord (Northern League) push for a strong control of immigration and getting their support has required some changes in policies from Berlusconi. Berlusconi himself has shown some reluctance to pursue such policies as strongly as his allies might like. [8]

[edit] Arguments for Illegal Jobs

In December 2002, Berlusconi astonished observers when he suggested that laid-off FIAT workers should take illegal non-tax-paying jobs to make ends meet.[9]

[edit] The Economist

The Economist publishing open letters against him[10]

In any event, according to The Economist, Berlusconi, in his position as prime minister of Italy, now has effective control of 90% of all national television broadcasting. [11]

[edit] Influence on the media

downgraded Italy's ranking from 'Free' to 'Partly Free' [12]

continued to threaten news diversity".[13]

Berlusconi's alleged 90% control of national media.[14]

views on the journalists Enzo Biagi, Michele Santoro[15]

the comedienne, Sabina Guzzanti, made outspoken criticism of the Berlusconi media empire [16]

500 per 1000 in Scandinavian countries[17]

Authors of book Inciucio[18]

[edit] Sense of humour

he wanted to amuse a small group of Boy Scout bystanders.[19]

This caused criticism from both Italy and Finland, with the Italian ambassador in Finland being called by the Finnish foreign minister.[20]

[edit] Dilatory tactics

including corruption and undue appropriation[21].

[edit] Entrepreneurial career, Bettino Craxi & Mafia

hiring of Vittorio Mangano[22].

"external association to the Mafia"[23]

the new law on international rogatories, which made his Swiss bank records unusable in court against him[24]

the law on legitimate suspicion, which allowed defendants to request their cases to be moved to another court if they believe that the local judges are biased against them [25],[26]

immunity from prosecution while in office.[27]

Cesare Previti, was sentenced to 5 years although the crime was reduced from corruption of judges to simple corruption.[28],[29]

a political witch hunt orchestrated by politicized (left-wing) judges.[30]

of a humorous nature.[31]

dissent from the Italian judges [32]

some of the passed laws were "clearly unconstitutional".[33]

Berlusconi has also been indicted in Spain for charges of tax fraud and violation of anti-trust laws regarding the private TV network Telecinco[34]

[edit] "Jowellgate" in Britain

seeking an indictment for bribery against Berlusconi and Mills[35]

[edit] Personality

he had a facelift[36]

comparing himself to Napoleon[37], Churchill[38] and Jesus Christ[39],[40].

[edit] References

  1. ^ Silvio Berlusconi From Forbes.com's: Forbes World's Richest People, Retrieved 2006-01-03.
  2. ^ DEAD LINK, AC Milan Website.
  3. ^ Forza Italia’s Chart of Values, Forza Italia website.
  4. ^ Italy Decides 2001: Silvio Berlusconi, self-styled man of the people, CNN.
  5. ^ (Italian) Article Forza Bahamas, in the column Bananas by Marco Travaglio (April 17, 2005, L'Unità). This article has been also published in book Berluscomiche (Marco Travaglio, 2005, Garzanti Libri, ISBN 88-11-59765-X), pages 431-433. It can be read at these links: [41] [42]
  6. ^  (Italian) Berlusconi bankrupcy risks and legal investigation before entering politics: Mani pulite. La vera storia. Da Mario Chiesa a Silvio Berlusconi (Gianni Barbacetto, Peter Gomez and Marco Travaglio, 2002, Editori Riuniti, ISBN 88-359-5241-7), p. 138-139.)
  7. ^ THE FIRST SEVEN YEARS OF FORZA ITALIA,Forza Italia website.
  8. ^ Bossi focuses immigration fears, BBC News (10 May 2001).
  9. ^ Fiat, bufera su Berlusconi "Incita al lavoro nero", La Repubblica (7 December 2002).
  10. ^  An open letter to Silvio Berlusconi from The Economist, article dated 30 July 2003 quoted by Haiko Hebig on his blog.
  11. ^ Fit to run Italy? (From The Economist print edition), The Economist (Apr 26, 2001).
  12. ^ Freedom House press release (Dead link)
  13. ^ Italy - 2004 Annual report, Reporters Without Borders.
  14. ^ Journalists In New Protest as Berlusconi’s Grip on Italian Media Becomes A Stranglehold, European Federation of Journalists (30 April 2004).
  15. ^ Media pluralism more threatened than ever, Reporters without borders (6 August 2002).
  16. ^ RAI suspends satirical programme after lawsuit by Berlusconi-owned company, Reporters without borders (22 November 2003).
  17. ^  A dead link at www.nikkei-ad.com).
  18. ^  (Italian) Gomez, Peter and Travaglio, Marco, Inciucio. BUR Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli (2005). ISBN 88-17-01020-0.
  19. ^ Berlusconi fa le corna nella foto del vertice Ue, La Repubblica (8 February 2002).
  20. ^ 'Playboy' Berlusconi irks Finland, BBC News (23 June 2005).
  21. ^ Italian premier's brother wants plea bargain in corruption case, Financial Times (22 April 2002), Retrieved 2005-02-01, reported on the la Margherita (the Daisy) opposition party website.
  22. ^ Berlusconi accused of Mafia links, BBC news (8 January 2003), Retrieved 2005-01-22
  23. ^ Italy's left attacks Berlusconi, BBC news (11 December 2004), Retrieved 2005-01-22
  24. ^ Berlusconi plans to get off the hook, The Observer (7 October 2001), Retrieved 2005-02-01.
  25. ^ Italian Senate passes disputed bill, BBC News (2 August 2002), Retrieved 2005-02-01.
  26. ^ Berlusconi scores double victory, BBC News (5 November 2002), Retrieved 2005-02-01.
  27. ^ Italy immunity law provokes fury, BBC news (25 June 2003), Retrieved [[2004/12/24
  28. ^ Berlusconi ally jailed for bribery, BBC News (29 April 2003), Retrieved 2005-02-01.
  29. ^ Berlusconi ally partially cleared, BBC News (22 November 2003), Retrieved 2005-02-01.
  30. ^ Berlusconi warns 'subversive' judges, BBC News (8 August 2003), Retrieved 2005-02-01.
  31. ^ Berlusconi stuns Italian judges, BBC News (5 September 2003), Retrieved 2005-02-01.
  32. ^ Italian magistrates go on strike, BBC News (25 May 2004), Retrieved 2005-02-01.
  33. ^ Italian president blocks reforms, BBC News (16 December 2004), Retrieved 2005-02-01.
  34. ^ Q&A: Berlusconi's battle with the courts, BBC News (24 January 2002), Retrieved 2005-02-01.
  35. ^ Italy bid for PM corruption trial, BBC News (10 March 2006).
  36. ^ BBC ‘Berlusconi admits plastic surgery’, BBC News (28 January 2004).
  37. ^ Berlusconi: "Un nuovo contratto ma tra 5 anni non mi ripresento", La Repubblica (10 February 2006).
  38. ^ ‘Io, Churchill e il pericolo comunista’, La Republica (11 February 2006)
  39. ^ "Proposte scritte sull'acqua" Berlusconi attacca Prodi, La Repubblica (12 February 2006)
  40. ^ Berlusconi: I'm Christ of politics Reuters report on the CNN website (12 February 2006).

[edit] Other references

These references are not referred to in the article as footnotes.