JUST WHEN you might have thought that former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi had almost retired from political life, up stepped the media tycoon this week to serve a timely reminder that as leader of Italy’s biggest party, he can still call the shots.
Technocrat Mario Monti might be the prime minister since last November, but Mr Berlusconi still has control of parliament.
Or so it would seem after a Thursday vote that saw the lower house reject a request from magistrates to arrest former junior economy minister Nicola Cosentino, currently on trial on charges of collusion with the Camorra, the Neapolitan Mafia.
In the past, Mr Berlusconi has strenuously defended Mr Cosentino, whose brother-in-law is the convicted “Casalesi” godfather Giuseppe Russo and who was forced to resign his cabinet position in July 2010.
It would appear that Mr Berlusconi again went to work on behalf of his former minister, ensuring a secret ballot vote of 309 to 298 against his arrest, despite media predictions of a comfortable win for the “yes” camp.
Mr Berlusconi is thought to have leaned heavily for support on his traditional allies, the federalist Northern League, sparking a bitter internal league dispute in the process.
The vote took place against the unusual background of empty government seats, since prime Mr Monti and his cabinet, all non-elected figures without a vote, did not attend. Controversially, the six deputies of the Radical Party, which is aligned with the centre-left, voted with Mr Berlusconi’s centre-right.
“This was a wise decision by parliament, which simply could not fail to protect itself . . . The trial will now continue normally and the deputy can face it as a free man,” Mr Berlusconi said afterwards.
As opposition forces roundly condemned the vote, no one was more outspoken than writer Roberto Saviano, author of Gomorra, an award-winning investigation into the Camorra.
Writing in the daily La Repubblica yesterday, Mr Saviano, who lives with 24-hour police protection because of threats on his life by the Camorra, argued that Mr Cosentino was not innocent.
“For me, you [Cosentino] are not innocent and you never will be, because the Camorra, which has a monopoly on power [in the region], has found an ally in you.
“You have never promoted a real anti-Camorra policy, never promoted economic growth in conditions of genuine competition, rather you have always favoured the worst possible local contractors. And that means that you are not innocent . . .”