Berlusconi convicted

Even without allegations that he paid for sex with an under-age prostitute and tried to cover it up, issues under consideration by a Milanese court, former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi cut a sinister if preposterous figure.

His bombast, his forceful vanity, and swagger made it easy to distrust him. That he and his businesses have been subject to one court action after another helped strengthen that view.

There is, though, an irony in the fact that he, like Al Capone, was finally tripped up over tax dodging. Tax evasion, just as it is in Greece, is one of the reasons Italy’s economy is so very insecure. Last year Italy recovered €12.7bn from tax dodgers, up 15.5% from 2010. This crackdown, initiated by Berlusconi but consolidated by Mario Monti, began when the impossibility of the country’s finances could not be denied any longer. It is estimated that €120bn in levies goes uncollected every year. Sums on this scale would have a very positive effect on Italy’s out-of-control debt, debts that may yet have profound consequences right across the eurozone.

Comparisons with how we treat our white-collar criminals suggest we should not be too quick to celebrate Berlusconi’s sentence which he will appeal. It is indeed sobering to consider that a country as corrupt and dysfunctional as Italy has a far better record than us in this area.