Divorce, Berlusconi style

Furthermore, today's newspapers carried Berlusconi's rather unequivocal response: he said he felt sorrow but also felt he could be the one to sue for divorce. This was the third time, he said, that his wife had made public accusations against him during an election campaign, he said. She was the victim of a "media trap", he added, believing everything she reads in the newspapers.

This weekend's developments, in any case, were not all that much of a surprise. First of all, it has been an open secret that the two were not really living together. His home, when he is not in Rome, is his villa at Arcore, outside of Milan, whereas she lives in another family villa at nearby Macherio. In addition, ony a few days ago, on April 28, Signora Berlusconi spoke out, sharply criticized her nearly 73-year old husband for his efforts to line up a hefty number of strikingly beautiful young women as his party's candidates in this spring's European elections. "Shameless garbage", she called it, saying that her husband's political use of women was insulting to them, and referring to him as "the emperor" whose desire for power knows no limits. "I want it to be clear", she told the ANSA news agency on April 30th, that my children and I are victims of, not accomplices in, this situation".

Silvio Berlusconi's antics when it comes to young women have long been known, ranging from flowery public compliments, getting himself photographed with one or more beauties sitting on his lap, and reported relationships with more than one of them, (although because of his 1997 bout with prostate cancer, the real nature of these relationships - at least one of which was ascertained in a judicial investigation on a related matter - remains unclear).

But the straw that broke the camel's back for Veronica came, reportedly, with news reports that Berlusconi had attended the birthday party of a flashy-looking 18 year old Neapolitan girl, who he allows to call him "Papi" or "Daddykins" despite the fact, she said, that he was never present at the 18th birthday party of any of their three children. Barbara, Eleonora and Luigi (Berlusconi also has two other children, Marina and PierSilvio, both of whom hold high-ranking positions in his company, Fininvest, from his first marriage). Veronica said then she didn't see how it was possible to have a relationship with a man whose circle of friends included "minorenne", that is, underage girls.

The polemics over the political recruitment of the young women Italians now refer to as "veline", after the beautiful, half-naked girls who play small but high-visibility roles on many Italian television shows, is not the first time that Veronica Lario has taken issue publically with her excessively flamboyant husband. Two years ago she wrote an open letter to a Rome newspaper accusing him of humiliating her by comments he had made about wanting to marry a young woman, Mara Carfagna, (today, Italy's minister of Equal Opportunity, ha ha) and asking for a public apology, which she got. And in 2005 she publically expressed her opposition to an overly strict law (now partially amended) on assisted fertilization that had been passed by the previous Berlusconi government and about which a popular referendum was about to be held.

It's too soon for any opinion polls - and it's unlikely that any reputable pollsters would spend their energies on this issue - but it would appear that here, too, the ever popular Berlusconi would probably prevail. The average Italian man would give anything to be like him - money, power, a family AND a whole bunch of younger, adoring women. And many Italian women, particularly those from more modest educational backgrounds, seem to think she has sinned by airing the family's dirty clothes in public.

Me, I have no doubt whose side I'm on - Veronica's - if only because she has more style and elegance than Silvio could ever dream of. And on that note, let me say straight off that I will have  no truck with those in this most cynical of countries who will say she is doing this for economic reasons. If that were the case, she'd have done far better to keep quiet. In any event, I have no doubt that from that point of view Berlusconi will behave properly.

That said, there appear to be some unanswered questions about the future of Berlusconi's six billion euro financial, media and real estate empire. According to Il Sole 24 Ore, my former employer, at the moment Silvio Berlusconi owns, outright, 61% of Fininvest, which includes Mediaset (three TV stations, one newspaper and advertising), Mondadori publishing, the Milan soccer team and the Mediolanum financial group, and of which each of his five children already own seve percent. He alone, however, owns 99% of Dragodolce, the company that groups all his varied, and massive,real estate holdings. What is unknown is what will happen to all his exclusively-owned property if he dies. According to Italian law, if he were to die intestate his wife and children would get everything. If he makes a will, they are still entitled to a certain quota of his property which in Italian is called la legittima: 50% to the wife, if he has one, and the rest to be divided among the children.