Italy: Italian Prime Minister Mr Silvio Berlusconi yesterday upped the stakes in his head-on clash with the judiciary when writing an open letter to Milan newspaper Corriere Della Sera.
He called for the re-introduction of parliamentary immunity and for the immediate suspension of an ongoing corruption trial in which he is named as a defendant.
Mr Berlusconi's letter came just two days after he made an unprecedented court appearance in the city during a corruption trial in which he and his long-time political ally and former private lawyer, Mr Cesare Previti, stand accused of bribing judges. He wrote that the "true and pre-eminent problem" of Italy over the last decade was that "political, economic and para-judicial lobbies" have systematically tried to deny Italians "the right to pick the government they want".
Rejecting accusations that since taking office in June 2001, he has governed almost exclusively in his own private interests, Mr Berlusconi said the reinstatement of parliamentary immunity and the suspension of his trial were not intended as a "helping hand for the Prime Minister" but would restore to parliament its "constitutional primacy" and "true political centrality".
Perhaps stung by a Milan court decision last week which saw judges hand down an 11-year prison sentence for bribery to Mr Previti, the Prime Minister appears to have changed tack in his attitude to the judicial problems that have dogged him for much of the last decade. Where previously he had left his legal defence to his lawyers, he now seems determined to personally fight his own corner.
Mr Berlusconi, Italy's richest man who is in de-facto control of almost 90 per cent of Italian terrestrial television, appears willing to risk a constitutional crisis to avoid the embarrassment of having a sentence for corruption and bribery handed down during Italy's forthcoming tenure of the European Union presidency.
He has already indicated that he might call a snap general election if convicted in the Milan case while his centre-right government has already drawn up draft legislation, intended to reactivate parliamentary immunity from prosecution, which was thrown out in 1993 during the first wave of public indignation at earlier scandals.
Opposition leader Mr Francesco Rutelli yesterday reacted angrily to Mr Berlusconi's latest offensive, arguing that the measures proposed by the Prime Minister were the expression of his "judicial obsession", having nothing to do with the needs of ordinary Italians and everything to do with getting him off the hook. "Italy is at risk. We risk sliding into the status of a regime without even realising it."
Mr Rutelli also indicated that the Opposition would use the referendum instrument to contest any legislation introduced by Mr Berlusconi, and would call on Italians to vote for repeal of the new measures.