Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Boston Globe Closes Doors on Berlusconi Trial

They haven't been covering it.

"Italy’s local races a test for Berlusconi" May 30, 2011|Associated Press

ROME — Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi insists his government’s stability will not be affected by the local voting. But his own popularity has been sagging, amid the country’s economic woes and his personal legal problems. In April, Berlusconi went on trial on charges that he paid for sex with an underage Moroccan prostitute and tried to cover it up.  

Globe been silent on it the whole month.

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Related: Italian Love Stories

Paper sure loves the politics:

"Cities deliver setback to Berlusconi" by Alessandra Rizzo, Associated Press / May 31, 2011

ROME — Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi acknowledged yesterday that his center-right party suffered defeats in his political stronghold of Milan and in Naples, outcomes that observers say could undermine his government’s stability and his leadership.

Berlusconi had campaigned hard ahead of the local elections and urged Italians to go to the polls to signal their support for his conservative coalition government in Rome.

“This time we didn’t win, but we continue. I am a fighter. Any time I have lost, I tripled the effort,’’ Berlusconi told reporters in Romania, where he was on an official visit.

Final results from the runoff elections held yesterday and Sunday appeared to support recent opinion polls that have shown his popularity slipping as he faces a trial in Milan in a prostitution scandal. Critics have said that he is devoting most of his energy to defending himself from charges that he paid for sex with an underage Moroccan teenager then used the prime minister’s office to try to cover it up. The trial continues today.

??

The votes mark a setback for the 74-year-old Berlusconi personally and for his local candidates, analysts say, and probably will raise questions about his leadership. 

I have a few of my own, Glob.

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