Berlusconi’s feeling the heat
With Silvio Berlusconi it seems to have reached new heights and the timing could not be any more interesting for the rest of Europe.
The Italian Prime Minister is due to take over the presidency of the EU on July 1 when he becomes the public face of the union for six months.
Allegations of corruption are not new to Italian politics but this week Mr Berlusconi was the first sitting prime minister to take the stand in a case against him.
And he quickly fingered another famous Italian, the president of the European Commission and former Prime Minister Romano Prodi.
A lawyer who made pocket money by writing fellow students' examinations in Milan University, the Italians seem dazzled by his flamboyance.
The owner of one of their cherished institutions, AC Milan, he is something of a showman.
He owns yachts, villas, has a glamorous second wife and three young children while his son and daughter from his first marriage help run the business empire.
Controversy has dogged his career and European leaders were somewhat amused by some of his recent antics when he tried to prevent agreement going through on an EU-wide common arrest warrant in case he would become one of its first victims.
The Spanish would like to question him on tax payments from one of his subsidiary companies there.
Some of his other un-statesman-like antics have included trying to link Italy's milk quota to the taxation of money in foreign bank accounts. He has held up EU agreement on this for months now.
Outside the EU he is best known for some of his pronouncements on world affairs.
Soon after September 11 he shocked a world trying desperately to assure Muslims they were not being targeted by asserting the superiority of European over Arab culture.
He fully supported the US war against Iraq, but said no Italians would be involved in the fight.
And more recently he has declared that Russia should become an EU member.
The media magnate he owns virtually all of Italy's commercial television stations and several newspapers and magazines tends to sail through much diplomatic faux pas but Europe's leaders are holding their breath about his latest court appearances.
Mr Berlusconi has three previous convictions for corruption and fraud, which were overturned on appeal. He was also alluded to in a UN report last year that accused senior Italian politicians of interfering with the judiciary.
He is now accused of bribing judges with funds from his foreign bank accounts in his bid to take over a state-owned food company, SME in 1985. It was being sold by the state-owned holding company IRI, which was chaired by Mr Prodi.
The prime minister told the court in Milan on Monday that Mr Prodi was trying to sell the company at a knockdown price to rival businessman Carlo De Benedetti, owner of the well-known brand Buitoni.
He got involved at the behest of the then prime minister, Bettino Craxi, who died in exile three years ago facing 10 years in jail for corruption.
"I had no direct interest and Craxi begged me to intervene because he believed the operation damaged the state," Mr Berlusconi told the court.
The company was sold to Mr De Benedetti for 258m when it was worth up to three times that according to Mr Berlusconi.
Mr Craxi set aside the deal and Mr De Benedetti failed to overturn this in the courts because, according to the prosecution, the judges were bribed by Mr Berlusconi.
Mr Prodi, who may yet be called to appear at the trial, issued a statement denying the accusations and said the price was based on an expert valuation.
He tried unsuccessfully to have the three-year-old trial moved from Milan, which he sees as the seat of this socialist inspired campaign.
He failed despite his new law that allows cases to be moved if the accused fears bias.
Just last week Mr Berlusconi's friend and personal lawyer in the food company case, Cesare Previti, was sentenced to 11 years in jail for bribing judges in a related company take-over battle that also involved Mr Berlusconi.
The verdict against the prime minister in the bribery case is expected this summer, coinciding with Mr Berlusconi's assumption of the EU presidency.
However, he is not leaving anything to chance and is according to Italian media, planning to push through a new law making politicians immune from prosecution.
They were immune up to 1993 before the "clean hands" investigation into political corruption began.
The charges could also be frozen if the Italian upper house debates them.
The EU is in for an interesting if not embarrassing six months with Mr Berlusconi at the helm.
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