Blimey, Buffoon Berlusconi's Bad

[Jan Klimkowski]

Silvio Berlusconi: I am inferior to no one in history

As Silvio Berlusconi yesterday tried to shore up his position by declaring himself irreplaceable as Italy's head of government, a court in Milan was told it had been "amply demonstrated" that he was guilty of bribery.

"I am, and not only in my own opinion, the best prime minister who could be found today," he told a press conference. "I believe there is no one in history to whom I should feel inferior. Quite the opposite."

The problem, he explained, was that "In absolute terms, I am the most legally persecuted man of all times, in the whole history of mankind, worldwide, because I have been subjected to more than 2,500 court hearings and I have the good luck – having worked well in the past and having accumulated an important wealth – to have been able to spend more than €200m in consultants and judges ... I mean in consultants and lawyers."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct...in-history

Silvio Berlusconi mistakenly says he has been paying millions to judges

Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, on Friday made an embarrassing gaffe when he said he had spent millions of euros on "judges" as part of an impassioned plea that he was the most persecuted man in history.

Mr Berlusconi quickly corrected his mistake, clarifying that as a result of the multiple investigations in which he had been embroiled he had spent 200 million euros on "consultants and lawyers". But the slip has added poignancy since it came just six days after Fininvest, Mr Berlusconi's holding company, was ordered to pay almost £700 million in damages to a rival firm after being found guilty of bribing a judge. The case dated back to a takeover battle in the 1990s.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew...udges.html

Must be some sort of conspiracy then.... :fisheye: