THE CIRCUITOUS legal road appears to be running out for the great survivor of European politics. Following a ruling by the constitutional court last month against political immunity, a Milan judge yesterday ordered that Italy’s billionaire prime minister Silvio Berlusconi stand trial on April 6th on charges that he paid an underage girl for sex and for abuse of office. The former carries a potential three-year sentence and the latter 12 years, although the case may last a couple of years. Mr Berlusconi also faces three unrelated embezzlement and fraud cases in the coming weeks.
However, whether the 74-year-old prime minister, in his third term in the post, actually faces trial in Milan depends on his success with a further, more political hurdle. His lawyers will try to persuade the office of the speaker of parliament that the case, because it relates to an act committed by a ministerial office-holder, should be heard by a special section of the magistrature that deals with accusations against ministers.
This will not be easy. Despite the PM’s parliamentary majority, the office of speaker is held by Gianfranco Fini, whom Mr Berlusconi expelled from the party last year and who is now one of his fiercest critics. Justice minister Angelino Alfano, in a familiar refrain, denounced the judge’s decision yesterday for jeopardising “the autonomy, sovereignty and independence of parliament”.
Mr Berlusconi’s determined fight to find the most sympathetic forum for his case is no doubt partly a reflection of the particularly sticky wicket he faces. It is common ground that he paid teenage Moroccan nightclub dancer Karima el Mahroug, aka Ruby “the Heartstealer”, at least €7,000. He says this was a gift and not for sexual services. And he admits to having rung the local police to get her released from custody, telling them that she was the granddaughter of Hosni Mubarak and that her continued detention would cause a diplomatic incident. A genuine misapprehension, he says.
A jury may take some convincing and he appears already to have been convicted at the bar of public opinion. On Sunday, in one of the country's biggest demonstrations in years, half a million women turned out to protest at the entrenched sexism they accuse him of representing. And a poll in the left-leaning La Repubblicafound that nearly 50 per cent of Italians believe the accusations to be true, although as many believe that he will not be punished even if found guilty. This being Italy, they may be correct.