Silvio Berlusconi’s almost certain exit from the centre stage of Italian politics couldn’t be better news for the European Union and its member states. The fall from grace of the former Italian PM is long overdue, not to mention a welcome opportunity for Italy once more to help shape the future of Europe. It is also a challenge for Ireland, which shares both membership of the EU and the euro currency with Italy, to make sure the union benefits from Italy’s membership and experience.
Berlusconi is expected to lose his seat in the upper house following his conviction in August for massive tax fraud at his mass media company Mediaset. He was sentenced to four years in prison, since commuted to a year under house arrest or community service, despite claiming his innocence and that he is the victim of left-wing magistrates.
Italy’s senate will soon hold an open vote on whether to expel Berlusconi from parliament. Yet even aside from the prison sentence, the courts have also barred him from holding public office for two years, which means he will almost certainly be expelled whatever the result of the Senate vote.
Italy is a great European country of art and culture, opera, soccer, food, wine, lakes and mountains with one of the most beautiful languages in the world, and has been tragically debased by Berlusconi and his media. It is one of the original six founder states of the European Union but during the reign of Berlusconi counted for very little in Europe.
Indeed, Berlusconi – the billionaire business mogul, owner of TV stations and a soccer club – has seriously damaged the reputation of Italy, besides that of the euro and the European Union itself. The long-serving leader of Italy’s centre right has survived court cases and sex scandals while the country has slid into economic and political chaos. His behaviour not only damaged his own credibility but seriously weakened Italy’s influence in Europe and beyond.
Over the years Berlusconi became a liability to his country, making statements increasingly unacceptable and often offensive. His views and prejudices have been related widely, including his comments that Christianity is superior to Islam and comparing a German MEP to a guard at a Nazi gas chamber.
The political disarray in Italy and its governments as a result of Berlusconi has been an affront to the country’s distinguished record in political leadership in Europe, and is an insult to such great Italian names as Altiero Spinelli, one of the founding fathers of the European Union.
Soon after I became an MEP I had the privilege to meet Spinelli, who was elected to the European Parliament on the Italian communist list. He had already served as a highly respected and influential Italian European Commissioner, was secretary general of the European Federalist Movement from 1948 to 1962, and first penned his plans for the future of Europe in an Italian prison during the Second World War. Spinelli is regarded among the architects of what we know now as the European Union along with Robert Schuman, Jean Monnet, Paul-Henri Spaak and others. It was Spinelli who put the defining stamp on the creation of what is today a union of 28 member states.
More recently, Italy has failed to punch its weight in Europe thanks to the long reign of Silvio Berlusconi. But now the land of La Dolce Vita can move forward and, with the support of Ireland and other member states, once again contribute the wealth of Italian culture and experience towards the success of European co-operation.
Michael McGowan is a former MEP and President of the Development Committee of the European Parliament.
