ROME: His legacy tarnished and his hopes of clinging to power dashed, Silvio Berlusconi faces daunting legal and financial challenges and the prospect of life outside the international spotlight now that he has left office.
Berlusconi stepped down amid jeers, cheers and heckles of "Buffoon" from thousands of people who packed downtown Rome to witness his government’s downfall after a stunning week of market turmoil that upended his defiant hold on power and threatened to tear apart the eurozone.
He has vowed he won’t run again, though few expect he’ll abandon Italian politics for good. Berlusconi himself has already said he might help out a campaign here or there because, well, "they’ve always turned out well for me."
But with Berlusconi’s resignation as premier Saturday following months of market turmoil, a political era in Italy closes and the 75-year-old Berlusconi is just a billionaire businessman once again.
His resignation was set in motion after the Chamber of Deputies approved economic reforms demanded by the European Union which include increasing the retirement age starting in 2026 but do nothing to open up Italy’s inflexible labor market.
The Senate approved the legislation a day earlier and President Giorgio Napolitano signed it into law Saturday afternoon, paving the way for Berlusconi to leave office as he promised to do after losing his parliamentary majority earlier in the week.
Respected former European commissioner Mario Monti remained the top choice to try to steer the country out of its debt woes as the head of a transitional government. But the job is Herculean, given the enormity of reforms required and Italy’s often-paralyzed parliament.
Napolitano will hold consultations Sunday morning with each of Italy’s main political forces before proceeding with the expected request that Monti try to form a new government.
The Italian has scheduled back-to-back, 10-minute meetings all morning, indicating the talks won’t drag on and that by the open of markets Monday, Italy may well have charted a new political course.
Late Saturday, Berlusconi’s party said it would support Monti, albeit with conditions.
"What we are viewing now is not the end of a government, but the end of a system, of a political system," said Massimo Franco, a political analyst for leading daily Corriere Della Sera.
Indeed, Berlusconi dominated Italian politics for the last 17 years, a polarizing figure who served three terms as premier. He held off political opponents and jousted with magistrates pursuing him on corruption and sexual misconduct charges, but was felled by massive international and market pressure.
The media mogul had thrived rubbing shoulders with the powerful, whether vacationing with Russia’s Vladimir Putin or getting a taste of Texas ranch life when hosted by then President George W. Bush in a meeting of Iraq war allies.
He came to power for the first time in 1994 using a soccer chant "Let’s Go Italy" as the name of his political party and selling Italians on a dream of prosperity with his own personal story of transformation from cruise-ship crooner to Italy’s richest man. He became Italy’s longest-serving post-war premier, in three terms.
In the end, his downfall came swiftly: Just last week Berlusconi boldly told a G-20 summit in Cannes, France, he was the only one who could steer Italy out of its economic morass. A week of battering on the markets and the defection of several party members later, his fate was sealed.
Italy is under intense pressure to quickly put in place a new and effective government to replace him, one that can push through even more painful reforms and austerity measures to deal with its staggering debts, which stand at €1.9 trillion ($2.6 trillion), or a huge 120 percent of economic output. Italy has to roll over a little more than €300 billion ($410 billion) of its debts next year alone.
But seen as an impediment to economic reform, his exit came quickly as Italy was swept up by Europe’s debt crisis.
Markets battered Italy this past week amid uncertainty that Berlusconi would really leave and questions over whether Italy’s divided parliament could rally around a replacement. But Italy’s borrowing rates pulled back after Napolitano made clear he intended to tap the politically neutral economist Monti to try to head an interim government to push the reforms through.
Whether Berlusconi goes back to running his media empire or even returning to the vacant post as president of his beloved AC Milan soccer team, he faces an unpleasant agenda. Judging from how his media voices are reacting, it won’t be a completely quiet exit.
"Stop a Europe of technocrats," clamored a headline in the family newspaper Il Giornale of Italy’s presumed new government headed by economist Mario Monti. "This government is a coup."
Berlusconi’s resignation will mean he can no longer claim official government business as a reason for missing hearings in his three trials, a tactic that has been used to delay proceedings. His attempt at fashioning a law that would have given him immunity was overturned by the Constitutional Court.
But charges in two Milan trials related to his business dealings will run out due to the statute of limitations early next year — leaving little peril that the billionaire would face any penalty even if courts can reach a conviction in the first trial. The Italian system allows for two levels of appeal.
Berlusconi is expected to testify before Christmas in his trial on charges of paying British lawyer David Mills to lie for him on the stand in another case. A verdict is expected in late January, but with the statute of limitations set to expire in March, it is impossible that two levels of appeal could be completed to make any verdict final.
Berlusconi has denied the charge, and Mills saw his conviction overturned on appeal.
In the other trial concerning his Mediaset media empire, Berlusconi is charged with tax fraud in the purchase of TV rights. Berlusconi denies the charges, which also expire in the spring.
In Berlusconi’s most sensational trial, the 75-year-old is accused of paying for sex with a Moroccan teen — known by her nickname Ruby Rubacuore, "Ruby the Heartstealer" — and using his influence to cover it up. No fewer than 22 court dates have been scheduled through May.
A conviction would mean Berlusconi would be permanently barred from public office — but he has already pledged not to run again and his hopes of one day becoming Italian president were dashed by the sex scandal.
That leaves the billionaire back where he started: running his considerable empire. The economic crisis has made that more challenging.
Shares in Mediaset have lost half of their value since May, as the debt crisis lapped ever more perilously at Italian businesses, and dropped by as much as 10 percent in trading sessions this week as Berlusconi’s political future was decided by the markets.
Even more dangerous was his loss of a civil suit to rival media group over corruption in the acquisition of the Mondadori publishing empire. A court has ordered him to €560 million ($800 million) for corrupting a judge.
Alarmed by the amount, Berlusconi went as far as quietly introducing a measure into Italy’s austerity budget this summer that would have allowed the company to delay payment until the final appeal, but withdrew it after political opponents raised an outcry.
He can still count on friends in high places to look after his interests: his 41-year-old political heir, Angelo Alfano, now heads his People of Liberties party and he remains its founder.
But Franco, the Corriere della Sera analyst, said Berlusconi’s future in the near-term is probably not on Italy’s center political stage.
"I think Berlusconi can just survive, maybe with a personal party, but I don’t think he is due to rule and lead Italy in the foreseeable future any more," he said.
People drink sparkling wine as they celebrate following Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s resignation on Nov. 12 in Rome. ( AFP Photo / Gabriel Bouys)
