The Politics of Decadence

This did not have to happen; he could have, and in so doing avoided the  humiliation of the formal vote. He would also have gained precious weeks  in so doing, but he chose not to resign because it would have insinuated his  guilt. Instead until the last minute he has been demanding that President  Giorgio Napolitano concede an amnesty for him. To this the President  explained, again and again, that under the law Berlusconi would first have to request that amnesty, a request Berlusconi refused, once again on grounds  that to do so would imply guilt. Thus the stubborn stalemate ended with his expulsion.


Until the last minute no one knew for certain whether or not the vote would  take place. And until the last minute his supporters on the floor of the Senate  tried to have declared invalid the anti-corruption law under which he was  convicted. The Severino Law, as it is called, disallows politicians with convictions of two years or more from holding public office. The law was passed in December 2012 with the votes of Berlusconi's own Freedom Party  (PdL), but the party claims that it does not apply to Berlusconi because the  alleged fiscal fraud took place years before that Law existed. The claims of unconstitutionality have not worked, and today Berlusconi's backers resorted  to trying to gain time by appealing, again and again, for a secret ballot on  his expulsion, but were voted down dozens of times. Whatever niceties of  democratic life a secret vote would have meant, it was more important to the  majority that there be no secret horse-trading, no vote buying. This is no arid  debate: judiciary records show that vote buying in Parliament has happened  in the past.


Turning out today to support Berlusconi were a thousand flag-waving,  cheering fans - some wearing black arm bands of mourning - gathered  outside the building where he rents a large apartment in Rome, Palazzo  Grazioli, a few steps from Piazza Venezia. Braving the 35-degree weather  and biting wind, they listened patiently as he delivered a pep talk in which  he promised to create a series of political clubs in the name of his reborn  Forza Italia party that will fight "for freedom." "We are missionaries of  liberty," he shouted. "I promise that I shall never forget any of you and your  demonstration. Long live Italy, long live Forza Italia, long live freedom!"


It is perhaps an unfortunate play on words that on Wednesday the Italian  Senate had to vote on Senator Silvio Berlusconi's "decadenza"--that is,  whether or not to disbar him from the Senate, thus stripping away his  parliamentary status and hence some of his continuing legal protections  and his right to run for office. Even in Italian the word also refers to the  expiration of a warantee for, say, a washing machine. But to take the word  n English as related to decadence also gives an idea of an unpleasant situation that has gone on far too long, with Parliament tied up with endless  debates over Berlusconi even as the government should be facing the serious  problems of the economy that afflict the nation. It is time for a sea change  away from decadence and back to the creativity that was a desired hallmark  of earlier postwar politics.


Silvio Berlusconi has dominated the Italian political scene for a total of  twenty years. So what now? He still commands the loyalty of as many as 7  million voters--much fewer than in the past. After today's expulsion he will  have to face, probably in April, the consequences of his definitive conviction  August 1 for fiscal fraud. He is most definitely not out of politics - on the  contrary, he still hopes somehow to be premier - but in theory will not be  able to run for office. In April point he can choose between accepting house arrest or accepting to perform public service under the control of social  workers. The notion does not please him: a priest's suggesting, "Let him come here and clean our toilets," sent Berlusconi into a fury, saying that he  would not be humiliated in that way.