Berlusconi stripped of immunity

Italy’s Constitutional Court yesterday threw out a law that shields Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi from prosecution while in office, paving the way for corruption proceedings to resume against him.

A defiant Mr Berlusconi slammed the court as primarily “left-wing” and vowed to see out his five-year mandate won in April 2008.

The billionaire prime minister, 73, said he expected the ruling “because with a Constitutional Court with 11 left-wing judges it was impossible for them to approve” the law passed last year shortly after he returned to power for a third time.

“We must govern for five years with or without the law,” the Prime Minister told reporters outside his Rome residence.

The 15-member panel ruled that the law violated the constitutional guarantee of equality before the law.

Former anti-corruption judge Antonio di Pietro, now head of the small Italy of Values party, called on Mr Berlusconi to “stop making laws for his personal use and step down”.

Earlier Mr Berlusconi’s spokes­man Paolo Bonaiuti dismissed the ruling as “political” and said the centre-right government “would continue to govern as the Italian people have demanded with their votes on all occasions since April 2008”.

Umberto Bossi, the head of the anti-immigration Northern League, allied with Mr Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party, said after meeting with the prime minister: “I found him strong, and that pleased me. I found him resolved to fight.”

For opposition leader Dario Franceschini, the court ruling “reestablished the principle of equality of all citizens before the law. We are all equal before the law, including the powerful.”

The conservative Prime Minister is accused of paying his British former tax lawyer, David Mills, €400,000 to give false evidence in two trials in the 1990s.

Mr Mills, who was tried separately, is appealing a guilty verdict delivered in February, when he was sentenced to four and a half years in jail.

Another case involves allegations that Mr Berlusconi’s Mediaset television empire inflated figures for its purchases of broadcasting rights in order to create slush funds.

The law thrown out yesterday shielded the holders of Italy’s four top political jobs – Prime Minister, President and the Speakers of the two Houses of Parliament – from prosecution while in office.

On Tuesday, lawyers for Mr Berlusconi stressed that he enjoyed protection from prosecution only while in office, and said his duties as Prime Minister distinguished him from other citizens.

Mr Berlusconi’s battles with the law have marked his public life since he burst onto the political scene in the mid-1990s.

He has faced charges including corruption, tax fraud, false accounting and illegally financing political parties.

Although some initial judgments have gone against the tycoon, he has never been definitively convicted.

Titillating scandals such as Mr Berlusconi’s relationship with an 18-year-old aspiring model – prompting his wife to seek a divorce – and an allegation that he spent a night with a call girl have dominated headlines in recent months.

Mr Berlusconi is also reeling from a weekend court ruling that his Fininvest holding company must pay €750 million to a rival media group.

The prime minister was found “co-responsible” for the bribery of a judge who decided in favour of the holding company during its takeover battle with Compagnie Industriali Riunite for the Mondadori publishing house.

Snap analysis

Italy’s top court ruling is a heavy blow for the conservative leader, but he is unlikely to bow out without a fight.

Berlusconi defiant

• A defiant Mr Berlusconi, already weakened by a sex scandal, vowed to stay despite the ruling by the Constitutional Court, which he called a political organ.

“These things fire me up, they fire Italians up. Long live Italy, long live Berlusconi,” the 73-year old media tycoon said, adding that the court, the head of state and the media all favoured the left.

• His lawyer, Niccolo Ghedini, said the verdict went “against the will of the people” who elected him to a third term last year.

But other centre-right politicians will be more reluctant to attack the country’s highest court, whose judges are usually considered untouchable above the political fray.

Are early elections an option?

• Before the verdict, some members of the ruling centre-right coalition had ­speculated that he may be tempted to step down and hold early elections in case of an unfavourable ruling – basically asking voters to overrule the court.

• His popularity rating has been eroded by the sex scandal but at around 50 per cent still remains strong for the leader of a country suffering its worst recession since World War Two.

And the opposition centre left is still reeling from last year’s election defeat and appears in no position to capitalise on his woes.

• However, one of Mr Berlusconi’s key coalition partners,Northern League leader Umberto Bossi, said neither he nor parliament speaker Gianfranco Fini, another crucial ally, backed the option of a snap poll.

Mr Bossi spoke instead of “mobilising the people” in the streets in a show of public ­support for the prime minister.

“Even if they decide to call an early election to give Berlusconi new legitimacy, his judicial problems will remain,”said Franco Pavoncello, professor of Political Science at John Cabot University in Rome.

Which trials is Berlusconi facing?

Yesterday’s ruling is set to reopen at least two trials against Mr Berlusconi, including a high-profile one where he is accused of bribing British lawyer David Mills to give false testimony to protect his businesses. The second sees Mr Berlusconi accused of tax fraud and false accounting in the purchase of TV rights by his Mediaset group.

What are the consequences for the economy?

• Already damaged by revelations that prostitutes attended parties at his home, Mr Berlusconi is now even more likely to steer clear of unpopular reforms that Italy’s economy badly needs.

“Berlusconi was already a lame duck at the head of a weak government because of the scandals around his personal life...(Now) he will be less inclined or able to focus on any reform effort,” said Tito Boeri, economics professor at Milan’s Bocconi university.