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PDF FormatThe extent of the blow delivered to the regime by Clean Hands is difficult to understand outside Italy, for this was not just another case of corruption at the top. The findings implicated virtually the entire political leadership (including at least three former prime ministers, innumerable government ministers present and past, and a majority of the members of Parliament at that time); most of the heads of the business sector, from top officials of government corporations to the directors of giant private corporations such as Fiat, Olivetti and Ferruzzi; a good number of local officials; and not a few law enforcement officials, judges and army officers. The entire world learned what the Italians had known for ages—that political corruption was even more extensive and significant than the criminal corruption spread by the Mafia.17
The aftermath of Clean Hands destroyed most of the ruling establishment in Italy and once again presented the left with what seemed like a golden opportunity to take power. Although some individuals from the opposition were implicated in the scandal as well, the very fact of being outside the government limited the extent of their involvement. And so the left hoped finally to form a government.
These hopes were encouraged by the clearly leftist slant of public debate in the country. Since the fall of Fascism, it had not been politically acceptable to be labeled as “rightist,” so all Italy, except for marginal elements, belonged to either the “center” or the “left.” Though the majority of Italians voted for the anti-leftist camp, the political debate was clothed in leftist attire: Even anti-leftist individuals or newspapers were compelled to employ a socialist vocabulary in order to express their opinions in a legitimate manner, and the intellectual debate possessed a distinct reddish hue. Due to the decentralization of power in Italy, there were always vehicles for expressing anti-leftist and even outright “rightist” views. However, a majority of the more important and respected media in Italy had been a forum for leftist rhetoric since World War II.
Thus with the collapse of the “centrist” regime, politicians and businessmen who wanted to survive began to assume a more leftist coloration in preparation for the anticipated “new regime.” Without a legitimate “right,” and with the disintegration of the “center,” it appeared that nothing could stand in the way of an imminent rise to power by the left.
There was, however, one person who escaped the devastation: After the dust had settled from the Clean Hands earthquake, billionaire Silvio Berlusconi, a man of considerable influence and public standing, walked away from the ruins virtually untouched by the scandals.
But the success of Berlusconi and his financial corporation Fininvest in remaining on their feet also left them completely exposed—due to his new prominence, Berlusconi’s every action came under scrutiny. The left was suspicious of a man who was known for his forceful conservatism. Unlike other giants of Italian business, he had never sought favor with the left nor concealed his views. Clearly a rise to power of the left would deal a fatal blow to Berlusconi and his companies. And leaders of the left fanned the flames of these fears with declarations that on their first day in power, they would “take care” of Berlusconi and his holdings.
Berlusconi understood that Italy, his corporations and he himself were likely in the near future to be at the mercy of an unbridled left seeking vengeance if there were no force to stand in the breach. He began to hold talks with various individuals in politics, business and academia regarding his conception of “the party that isn’t”—a new political force capable of balancing out the political arena. He felt that not only did such a party already exist in the Italian soul, but that in a society in which a majority of people continued to be critical of the left and its values, the “party that wasn’t” could become the dominant political power in the country.
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“His Emitence”
[F]or men in general judge more by the eyes than by the hands, for everyone can see but only few have to feel. Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are....The Prince, ch. 18
Silvio Berlusconi was born on September 29, 1936 in the city of Milan in northern Italy. He was educated in a school run by Silesian monks, afterwards obtaining a law degree from the University of Milan with a thesis on advertising. His was a bourgeois family of modest means (his father was a bank employee), and he supported himself as a student with occasional jobs that included selling vacuum cleaners and singing on luxury liners.
In the early 1960s, Berlusconi invested his family’s limited capital in real estate, just when the construction market was undergoing a period of tremendous growth—one of the fruits of the “economic miracle” which was taking place at the time. His business affairs developed at a dizzying pace, and within a decade he controlled one of the most important construction firms in Italy. In the mid-1970s he discovered, before anyone else, the economic potential of a field which had just been opened to free competition—private television broadcasting—and in slightly more than a decade he created the largest private television network in the country, the only one to compete seriously with the government-owned networks. In the 1980s, while continuing to develop his construction and broadcasting interests, he entered new fields as well: His advertising firm, Publitalia, became the largest in the country, he purchased one of Italy’s largest grocery chains (Standa), he gained control of the important Mondadori publishing house, and he bought the renowned A.C. Milan soccer team. In the early 1990s, Berlusconi was the most popular personality in Italy, representing to his countrymen the realization of a dream: Still in his fifties, he was the richest man in Italy (he was sole owner of most of his corporation’s companies, and his wealth was estimated at five billion dollars) and headed the second-largest private corporation in the land.
But Berlusconi’s considerable professional and financial achievements were not the only basis for his unrivaled popularity among the public—after all, there are other successful billionaires in Italy. Berlusconi possessed three qualities that made him stand out: First, he built his financial empire with his own hands, steering clear of the corruption and demands for special treatment that characterized most large Italian corporations. Second, his corporation is profitable and does not need state subsidies—in contrast to groups like Fiat or Olivetti, whose staggering losses were covered for many years by sizable government grants (which, it later transpired, were often given in return for bribes). Third, Berlusconi is a natural communicator, who has built a reputation as a man who consistently expresses the views held by most Italians on many issues.
Indro Montanelli, the doyen of Italian journalists, who used to work for Berlusconi, claims (not as a compliment) that “Berlusconi believes he is a combination of Churchill and de Gaulle.”18 This offers a certain insight into Berlusconi’s total identification with his public image. Just as de Gaulle was convinced that he represented France, and as Churchill saw himself as representing British history, so too Berlusconi and his image have long formed a single entity which, in great measure, represents the Italian national character.
This is Berlusconi’s special genius as a marketer and communicator—he understands better, and before all the rest, the desires of his potential clients, the Italians. In the 1960s, he understood the longing of the new Italian middle class for high-quality housing, and he built the green suburbs Milano II and Milano III. In the 1970s he sensed the increasing appetite for media diversity and established his television stations. In the 1980s he discovered the need of small and medium-sized manufacturers to publicize their wares, and turned his Publitalia into the largest publicity firm in the country. And in the early 1990s, he identified the increasing need for a new anti-leftist political camp after the collapse of the Christian Democrats.
