ITALY: The Italian Prime Minister, Mr Silvio Berlusconi, yesterday launched a bitter attack on the Italian magistrature. Speaking to reporters from his private home at Arcore, near Milan, the Prime Minister declared himself the victim of a political witch-hunt by leftist magistrates.
He accused them of trying to undermine his electoral mandate and said Italy faced a serious constitutional crisis because of the actions of "politicised elements in the magistrature".
On Tuesday, Italy's Supreme Court rejected a request from Mr Berlusconi's lawyers to have a trial in which he stands accused of bribery moved away from its present seat of Milan. Mr Berlusconi's lawyers had invoked the recently enacted "Cirami Law", which allows defendants to file for a change of venue on grounds of a "legitimate suspicion" of bias by the court because of local factors.
When the "Cirami Law" came before parliament last autumn, there was unprecedented acrimony with opposition forces arguing that it had been tailor-made to let the Prime Minister off the hook.
Its critics argued that a switch of venue, with the consequent need to start again from scratch, would inevitably drag out the trial, making it probable it would fall under the Statute of Limitations.
In Milan, Mr Berlusconi and his close ally, former defence minister, Senator Cesare Previti, stand accused of having paid approximately €100,000 in bribes to Rome judges during the mid-1980s.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court also rejected requests for a switch of venue for two other Milan-based bribery and corruption cases involving Senator Previti, but not the Prime Minister.
Reactions to Tuesday's decisions contrasted sharply.
Former Milan public prosecutor Mr Gerardo D'Ambrosio said the Supreme Court's decision "could not have gone any other way", whilst opposition Justice spokesperson Ms Anna Finocchiaro argued that the court had acted in a "wise manner".
Leftist daily L'Unita, ran an ironic banner headline proclaiming "The Law is The Same For Everyone", reproducing the declaration that is written on the wall of every court in the land.
Inevitably, Mr Berlusconi saw it differently.
In an animated discourse yesterday, he defiantly expressed his innocence, arguing that since his entry into politics in 1994, he has been the victim of a witch-hunt that has seen him named in no less than 87 different penal proceedings and which has seen his Fininvest Group subjected to 470 finance police raids.
"Faced with this incredible judicial persecution, I will continue to defend myself as I have done heretofore, based on the total, proud and serene certainty that I have committed no crimes.
"The current situation needs to be remedied for the good of the country and its institutions. Government is of the people and of those who represent the people, not of that person who, having passed a public exam, then puts on the judge's gown and whose only responsibility is to apply the law of the land," he said.