Berlusconi back on form with call for a tax-free month and judge sanity testing

Published on Wednesday 9 April 2008 21:41

ITALY'S lacklustre general election campaign received a much-needed boost yesterday when Silvio Berlusconi voiced his support for a tax-free month and sanity tests for the judiciary.

The 71-year-old billionaire media tycoon and former prime minister has a comfortable eight-point lead in the polls for this Sunday's election, but has been surprisingly subdued in the current campaign.

However, he was back to his colourful self yesterday as he carried out a round of TV, radio and newspaper interviews.

He picked two of his favourite subjects – taxes and judges – to kick off the media blitz, which began with an interview in his own newspaper, Il Giornale.

He said: "I have an idea for Italy – no taxes for a month. After the disasters of Romano Prodi (the outgoing prime minister] I want to give 30 days of freedom from taxes. Let's see if we can do it. Probably we will not be able to because it will cost too much. But, as you can see, we have imagination to solve problems."

When questioned on the radio about his proposal he said: "It wasn't a promise. I just said it's something I would like to do if and when the economy lets us."

Mr Berlusconi also raised eyebrows with his suggestion of "sanity tests for the judiciary, for prosecutors, every few years to check their mental stability".

The tycoon has long criticised Italy's judges and prosecutors, who he claimed were "communists in togas" out to get him.

He has faced several corruption inquiries and is the subject of two ongoing trials. His co- accused in one is David Mills, the estranged husband of Tessa Jowell, the UK's Olympics minister.

When previously in power, Mr Berlusconi introduced legislation which saw him cleared of various investigations. He famously passed a law which made false accounting, of which he was accused, no longer a crime, and another which made it illegal for a prime minister to be put on trial while in office. This was later overturned. Mr Berlusconi also introduced legislation which set time limits for 'white- collar crimes'.

The suggestion of sanity tests was condemned as "the comment of a madman" by Antonio Di Pietro, a leading Italian magistrate who led the famous bribery purges in the early 1990s dubbed "Mani Puliti" (Clean Hands).

In his interviews, Mr Berlusconi – who is running against the centre-left former mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni – said: "I am 100 per cent certain of victory. I will also have the satisfaction of finishing what I started when last in power."

In the final week of a mundane campaign, the two sides have hardened polite rhetoric which had given the impression they would consider forming a coalition government.

Mr Veltroni said: "Whoever wins, even by one vote, will have the duty and the honour of governing Italy."

Earlier this week, Mr Berlusconi said his opponents on the left had "no taste, not even when it comes to women". "As for our (women candidates] being more beautiful, I say that because in parliament they have no competition."

He promised women would occupy a third of cabinet posts if he won, but his sexist comments provoked an angry response.

Paola Balducci, a parliamentarian from the Rainbow Alliance, said: "Running for parliament is not the same as competing in the Miss Italy beauty contest."

Mr Berlusconi delights in the company of glamorous women and has fielded some of the dancers who populate television shows on his Mediaset channels as candidates for parliament.

Both Mr Berlusconi and Mr Veltroni are campaigning on similar packages, and political commentators have remarked on the similarity of both their manifestos – lower taxes, cutting crime, more job opportunities.

Mr Berlusconi was defeated by a wafer-thin majority in the most recent election, in April 2006, and claimed some success in being in charge of the first of 60 post-war governments to complete its five-year mandate.

He said he lost the 2006 election because of voter fraud, a charge which was never substantiated.

Yesterday, however, Mr Berlusconi returned to the topic. "He (Veltroni] should promise me the left will renounce the use of blank ballots... the type of fraud that was around at the last election," he said, accusing left-wing election officials of counting abstentions as votes for the left.

Mr Veltroni rejected the accusation. He said: "(Mr Berlusconi] only talks about fraud when he loses. He needs to stop this, as it's just a way of creating tension. Do you think Berlusconi is fit to govern?"

The current election was called in January after Mr Prodi lost a vote of confidence. The ballot takes place on Sunday and Monday next week.