they might lose support. With the benefit of some
creative accounting, Italy was judged to have met
the Maastricht criteria and so was able to join the
Monetary Union in 1999.
The Olive Tree coalition ousted Prodi in 1998
and in quick succession had three new leaders as
prime minister – in October 1998 Massimo
D’Aleima, followed by Giuliano Amato, who was
removed in time for the former mayor of Rome,
Francesco Rutelli, to contest the May 2001 general
election. With all those changes it looked like the
old politics of musical chairs. As for Berlusconi, the
electorate did not appear too much concerned
with charges of corruption in running his media
business empire or in the conflict of interests that
would arise when a prime minister controls the
main news channels, three national TV stations, a
large publishing house, the AC Milan football
team, a major newspaper and financial services. A
self-made billionaire, he promised success in the
handling of government. There was a reaction
against Italy’s old political elite in favour of a mav-
erick business tycoon who promised to cure Italy’s
ills, though it was far from clear how he could
make good providing better services while spend-
ing less – the classic conservative appeal. The elec-
torate gave Berlusconi’s own party solid support in
the Freedom Alliance he formed. His coalition
partners in the centre-right administration were
the same as in his ill-starred short government of
1994 – the populist rhetorically extremist leaders
of the Northern League Umberto Bossi and
Gianfranco Fini’s Social Movement with echoes of
the old Fascist Party. But Bossi’s poor showing in
the election no longer gave him the leverage to
bring down the government as in 1994, and Fini
was doing his best to shed the lingering fascist
image.
The big reforms Berlusconi promised remain to
be enacted. Nothing much changed. The Italian
budget remained out of skelter, the looming pen-
sion crisis has not been tackled, economic growth
in difficult global conditions was low.
In the European Union, Italy became more
assertive, but Berlusconi did not risk taking con-
flict too far. At home too he has avoided con-
frontations with vested interests. His careful
middle way was well illustrated by his handling of
Italy’s position in the Iraq war. Italian public
opinion as elsewhere in continental Europe was
strongly opposed to the war. Berlusconi masked
his own pro-American feelings declaring no
Italian combat forces would be sent while quietly
permitting the US to use Italian bases. On the
home front, Berlusconi was dogged by allegations
of business corruption going back to the 1980s.
As a serving prime minister he had been forced
to defend himself before magistrates in Milan on
the very eve of taking over the revolving presi-
dency of the European Union in July 2003.
National pride would not allow that. A new
bill was passed freeing Berlusconi from prosecu-
tion while prime minister but the constitutional
court in the following year struck down the
bill. Unprecedented for a serving prime minister,
Berlusconi at the close of 2004 once again
became the defendant in a criminal corruption
trial, accused of bribing judges twenty years
earlier, before he had entered politics. He was
acquitted; a political crisis was averted. Before he
leaves office, Italians will have tired of the legal
dramas and will judge him on the success of his
administration.848 WESTERN EUROPE GATHERS STRENGTH: AFTER 1968
Italian election, May 2001Chamber of Deputies
Percentage Seats
Olive Tree coalition 35.0 242
(four parties)
Casa della Libertá 49.4 368
(centre–right five-
party coalition)