- The Observer,
- Sunday January 18, 2004
Berlusconi is due to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his party, Forza Italia, next weekend. And, if he is still clinging to office in a couple of months, he can boast of making the record books as the longest-serving of Italy's 58 post-war Prime Ministers.
But this weekend he was nowhere to be seen, and instead of an atmosphere of festivity in Italy there was a sense of looming disaster.
Italy's struggling economy faces a serious knock from the Parmalat collapse, dubbed one of the 'most brazen corporate frauds in history', and also from transport workers striking over wages who have brought the industrial capital, Milan, to a standstill for the past week. Berlusconi once again faces trial for alleged corruption and his coalition partners are threatening to pull the plug on his government.
Berlusconi - who nipped into Rome for a cabinet meeting on Friday, slipping into parliament through a side door and then speeding off behind tinted-glass windows making no comment on the week's momentous events - was reportedly 'seeking inspiration' among the lemon trees of his vast Sardinian holiday home. His spokespeople only say he will be back 'in the next few days'.
Since 20 December, the image-obsessed Prime Minister has been almost invisible, such an uncharacteristic low profile triggering fears that he may be seriously ill. Berlusconi, who had an operation for prostate cancer six years ago, also disappeared from public view for most of last November, just as the EU was struggling to reach an agreement on its constitution.
He is also under increasing pressure following corruption claims. Last week a law giving immunity to the Prime Minister was found to be unconstitutional. He stands accused of bribing judges to swing a corporate buyout in the 1980s, before he went in to politics.
His absences initially seemed to be explained when a surgeon claimed he had performed 'a small plastic surgery operation' to remove bags from under Berlusconi's eyes. But now his political opponents suspect that the stories of facelifts and crash diets may have been 'planted' to divert attention from the 67-year-old's health or from Italy's real problems.
