Email
Italy's tumultuous 17-year relationship with its maverick prime minister entered a dangerous phase as Silvio Berlusconi was sent for trial on vice charges and his supporters declared the indictment an onslaught on the will of the people.
The trial, to start in April and be presided over by three women judges, is unparalleled in the modern history of Italy, and may make an early general election unavoidable.
Berlusconi is accused of paying for sex with an underage prostitute and abusing his office by seeking her release in another case. He denies both charges.
Under Italian law the prime minister can continue to hold office even while in the dock, but with adversaries clamouring for his resignation, the party that keeps Berlusconi in power gave a first indication that it might shift its allegiance. Pier Luigi Bersani, the leader of Italy's biggest opposition group, the Democratic Party (PD), said in an interview with the newspaper of the populist Northern League that a centre-left government would deliver the devolution the league seeks.
However, the Roman Catholic church, whose teachings on bio-ethical and other issues have been backed by Berlusconi's governments, barely lifted a metaphorical eyebrow at the indictment. The president of the Italian bishops' conference, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, said only: "Transparency is a quality that is worth pursuing at all levels for the good of the country."
Wednesday's edition of the Vatican daily, L'Osservatore Romano, puts the indictment at the bottom of page 2, next to an article on Japanese interest rates.
A poll this week in La Repubblica newspaper showed that almost half of Italians believed the accusations against their prime minister were true. But just as many thought he would go unpunished.
After the committal was announced, Berlusconi scrapped a press conference and flew back from a visit to Sicily to spend three hours closeted in his Rome residence with two of his closest advisers: his lawyer, Niccolò Ghedini, and a junior minister, Gianni Letta. He maintained a deafening silence.
It was left to other members of the government to express outrage. The education minister, Mariastella Gelmini, said the courts were "trying to condition the will of the voters and overturn one of the cardinal principles of all democracies: the balance of power between the judicial, legislative and executive arms of government".
The justice minister, Angelino Alfano, said the decision had implications for "the autonomy, sovereignty and independence of parliament".
Earlier this month, the chamber of deputies voted not to agree to a request for indictment from the prosecutors investigating the prime minister on the grounds that they did not have the jurisdiction.
However, Judge Cristina Di Censo ruled that Berlusconi should be sent straight to trial, without committal proceedings, accepting the prosecutors' view that the usual procedures should be waived because of the "obviousness of the evidence" against him.
Berlusconi, 74, could face three years in prison on the juvenile prostitution charge and up to 12 years on the charge of abusing his official authority. But, because of his age, he is unlikely to be jailed if convicted.
The decision to indict represented the latest in a string of devastating blows to the billionaire politician. His wife left him in 2009. Last year, he was deserted by the man who had stood at his side since he entered politics in 1994, his former deputy, Gianfranco Fini.
Since then, Berlusconi has struggled to keep his rightwing government afloat. On Sunday, half a million women turned out to protest at the entrenched sexism they accuse it of representing, in one of the biggest demonstrations seen in Italy in recent years.
This case, the latest of many to be brought against Berlusconi, is peculiarly dangerous. He has wriggled out of several previous scrapes because of Italy's lenient statutes of limitations, which "time out" legal proceedings before they can run their course.
But there is no statute of limitations for the alleged juvenile prostitution offence and the case has been put on a fast track, so it is likely that the trial and two appeals allowed under Italian law can be completed before the other charge is timed out.
Berlusconi now has 15 days to choose his next move: he can plead guilty and bargain for a reduced sentence; he can agree to a "quickie" trial, which would be held behind closed doors and entitle him to a one-third reduction of his sentence if convicted; or he can settle for a full trial in public.
Under Italian legal procedure, the alleged victims are identified. In this case, they are Karima el-Mahroug, a runaway Moroccan teenager who was a guest at parties in Berlusconi's villa outside Milan, and the Italian interior ministry.
Prosecutors claim the prime minister paid Mahroug, also known as Ruby Rubacuori or "Ruby the Heartstealer", for sexual services while she was still only 17. Last May, she was taken to a Milan police station accused of theft. But she was released to a regional parliamentarian from Berlusconi's party, Nicole Minetti, who has since been placed under investigation, suspected of aiding and abetting prostitution.
The police, who are answerable to the interior ministry, took a call from Berlusconi in which he claimed Mahroug was the granddaughter of the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. Berlusconi's lawyers have insisted he believed this was the case.
Not the least of the bad news that rained down on the prime minister today came in an interview with Minetti's lawyer.
She told the web site Affaritaliani.it: "Nicole Minetti is going to speak. She will do so clearly, even at the cost of breaking with Silvio Berlusconi".
Shares in Berlusconi's Mediaset TV group fell 1.7% on the news of the judge's decision, which came against a background of reports that the prime minister's private life is at the centre of yet another inquiry – allegedly concentrating on parties held at a castle on the outskirts of Rome which he occupied last summer.
Dario Franceschini, parliamentary chief of the PD, said: "Berlusconi must resign. He should stop making us the laughing stock of the world."
His counterpart from the smaller Italy of Principles party, Massimo Donadi, said: "Berlusconi's political death throes cannot and must not become those of the country".
;