ITALY: Sleep not easy, the reds are still under the bed. You have Silvio Berlusconi's word for it. Italy's charismatic prime minister, well-known for his abilities as a crooner, was singing the same old song at his Forza Italia party's 10th anniversary in Rome on Saturday when he lambasted the centre-left opposition, repeatedly depicting them as untrustworthy, anti-democratic "communists", writes Paddy Agnew in Rome
Ex-communist, post-communist or neo-communist, it makes no difference to Mr Berlusconi. The opposition are still the "enemies of liberty and freedom", he told his delighted followers.
As he recalled the political context in which he founded Forza Italia 10 years ago, he even had the nerve to mention the vexed question of face-lifts. Curiously enough, though, he was not referring to himself: "At the beginning of the '90s, just when all over the world communist ideologies and regimes were being buried, lost under the weight of tens of millions of deaths and of the inhuman suffering inflicted on billions of people, in our country the inheritors of that communism, the ex-communists, the neo-communists, tried to put into action a long-laid plan.
"Namely, the winning of power, not through free and open elections but rather through the elimination of their rivals via judicial means in the expression of a nasty habit that unfortunately remains part of their DNA. Ten years ago, they were de facto communists still carrying the hammer and sickle symbol. Now they've given themselves a face-lift, they've tried to hide their true identity, but the face-lift hasn't worked "
At times, the atmosphere in Rome's Palazzo Dei Congressi was almost that of a pantomime. Mr Berlusconi had only to mention the word "communist" and his followers applauded. When he mentioned the names of those Milan-based judges who over the last decade have charged him with tax evasion, bribery, corruption, false accounting and money-laundering (among other things), the parterre responded with loud booing and hissing.
"Viva Forza Italia, viva l'Italia", he concluded triumphantly. With that, right on cue, in came the Forza Italia anthem again. All that was missing were the final credits. This programme was brought to you by Silvio Berlusconi Communications Ltd.