European Diary: Mr Silvio Berlusconi swept into the great, cavernous dining hall of Rome's Villa Madama, shaking a few hands and flashing his vulpine grin as he went. Italy's billionaire prime minister had invited 50 European journalists to dinner, with a menu devised by himself in the colours of the tricolore, writes Denis Staunton
Mr Berlusconi's purpose was to talk about his country's six-month EU presidency, which started this month, and to dispel doubts about his suitability to lead Europe and represent it abroad. These doubts were reinforced by Mr Berlusconi's infamous joke in the European Parliament, when he compared a German MEP to a concentration camp guard.
Mr Berlusconi began his after-dinner speech by outlining his idea for "a truly European government" with the EU's prime ministers taking on the role of EU commissioners. Malta, he said, could take charge of maritime matters, including such issues as tanker safety.
Mr Berlusconi said that he had discussed his idea with the Commission President, Mr Romano Prodi. When I asked him how Mr Prodi responded, Mr Berlusconi replied that the Commission President had reacted very positively.
Mr Prodi's spokesman said yesterday, however, that the Commission President did not support the proposal.
The journalists at the Villa Madama were taken aback by what Mr Berlusconi had to say about the EU, but his opening remarks were just a prelude to a bizarre display of self-justification that followed for almost an hour.
The Italian prime minister, who is also his country's richest man, believes himself to be more persecuted than any citizen in Italy or in any other western country. He claims that "communist infiltrated" judges have conducted a vendetta against him and his business empire in an effort to "eliminate" him politically. He described the scale of the judges' investigation into his companies as unprecedented.
"This has never happened to any other citizen, even in a dictatorship," he said.
Mr Berlusconi said that he felt compelled to enter politics in order to save Italy from an "illiberal, stifling future" under the left. But he claimed that left-wing judges had used unfounded allegations to drive him from office in 1994, leaving his country for "six long years" under centre-left government.
Describing the judges who targeted him as "a cancer in democracy", he made clear his intention to reform the judiciary to his liking. "We owe it to citizens to change it and to update the laws," he said.
As a powerful media magnate, Mr Berlusconi might have hoped for support from the Italian media, but he claimed that 85 per cent of the press was against him.
"The entire state television is against the government because the journalists were appointed by the old government," he said.
It is only, apparently, on the television channels owned by Mr Berlusconi's own family that a balanced picture emerges.
"The journalists who work for my family say that I am the most liberal media owner in Italian history," he said.
Mr Berlusconi's idiosyncratic style does not appear to have damaged his standing in Italy and on the face of it, Italy's choice of government is nobody's business but its own.
The EU is now so closely integrated, however, that events in one member-state can quickly affect the interests of all the others.
For the next six months, Mr Berlusconi will represent the EU in meetings with world leaders, including the US President, Mr Bush. As chairman of the European Council, he will be responsible for finding compromises among the member-states and will be in charge of the Inter-Governmental Council that will complete the drafting of Europe's new constitution.
Even after Italy's EU presidency is over, other EU leaders will have to take account of Mr Berlusconi's views, however distinctive they are. As one of the EU's largest member-states, Italy has more than four times as many votes as Ireland in the Council of Ministers. In the policy areas where unanimity applies, Mr Berlusconi can veto any proposal he does not like, regardless of the attitude of his neighbours.
Mr Berlusconi's attacks on the judiciary and the media, with which Italians are now wearily familiar, may be no more than the bluster of a politician who cultivates the common touch. The impression he gave in the Villa Madama may have been misleading and Mr Berlusconi may not be a vain, paranoid bully with a slender grasp of democratic values who sees communist plots everywhere he turns.
Perhaps he is, as he claims, "a good man, a gentleman" and a model of balance and moderation. As it prepares for six months that will shape its constitutional future, Europe can only hope that Mr Berlusconi is as deeply misunderstood as he thinks he is.