Diary

13 September 2003

On the whole, I think Berlusconi – a Latino Thatcherite – a very good thing for Italy. A dictator? Come off it. Tony Blair has far more power. Yet Martin Jacques in the Guardian last July called him 'the most dangerous political figure in Europe'. This is very condescending to the Italian people. Il Cavaliere is Prime Minister by popular demand, with a bigger majority than any of his 56 predecessors. As for the conflict-of-interest point, he may be a media mogul, but he is a media mogul who – contrary to what the media keep telling us, so disproving their own point – does not control the media.

In my biography of Mussolini, published in July, I argue among other things that Il Duce was hugely popular with Italians. Rather mischievously, I had wanted to ask Berlusconi, 'Why was Mussolini more popular than you?' The right moment failed to pop up. But Mussolini did: while discussing Iraq, Berlusconi said, 'I understand the difficulties in teaching democracy to a people who for nearly 40 years have known only dictatorship.' To which I said, in a jocular way, 'Like Italy at the fall of fascism.' He replied, 'That was a much more benign dictatorship – Mussolini did not murder anyone. Mussolini sent people on holiday to confine them [banishment to small islands such as Ponza and Maddalena which are now exclusive resorts].' This, though extraordinary, is more or less true. Unlike the Russian communists, the Italian fascists did not use mass murder to retain power. There was no need. You see, Mussolini – until he started losing battles – was very popular.

Part of the reason Berlusconi's remark about mad Italian judges caused such a crisis is that his opponents on the Left are desperate to deflect attention from a scandal of immense proportions which threatens to engulf them. The scandal is this: in 1997, when the EU commissioner, Romano Prodi, was Italian prime minister, the state-owned Italian telecommunications company – Stet – bought 29 per cent of Telekom Serbia from Slobodan Milosevic for roughly £300 million; then, in 2002, Telecom Italia (by then Stet had been privatised) sold back the share for about £100 million. The scandal involves all the usual allegations of massive bribes, not to mention the chucking of so much public money down the drain. Worse, Milosevic used the money, according to a CIA report, to finance his ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.