Maybe its North America's puritan roots, but European politicians seem to do everything with an elevated sense of style.
Even the wrong stuff.
Consider Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Berlusconi is the second longest-serving Prime Minister in Italian history, and has held the office on three separate occasions. A media mogul, he owns one of the largest private companies in all of Italy, and football giant A.C. Milan (home to David Beckham, Kaka, and Ronaldinho).
All of this hasn't come without its fair share of controversy; Berlusconi has long been rumoured to have ties with the mafia, and has repeatedly been tried for tax fraud, corruption, and bribery. In total, Berlusconi has been before a judge on criminal charges twelve separate times. No wonder Berlusconi passed a law in 2008, protecting the Prime Minister from being tried while in office.
And we're still just getting started - look over a small sampling of gaffes Berlusconi has made while in office:
- 1. After 9/11, Berlusconi claimed that Western Civilization was superior to Islam, before going onto compare anti-globalization demonstrators to Al-Qaeda.
- 2. At a EU summit, he made a devil horns gesture behind the head of the Spanish foreign minister. He later said he was ‘just kidding'.
- 3. Suggested to a German EU council member that he audition for the part of a Nazi concentration camp guard in a film a friend was producing.
- 4. Suggested that Mussolini did not murder opponents, but sent them ‘on holiday.'
The most recent controversy involves his recent separation from his wife of 19 years. Her reason?
His new
18 year old girlfriend; also, just to clarify, Berlusconi is in his
early 70s. The 18 year old, Noemi Leitzia, apparently spent New Year's Eve in Berlusconi's mansion in Sardinia, along with three more of her teenage girlfriends.
Presidential-Mansion-Wrecker, Naomi Leitzia
Imagine if Barack Obama got caught doing a 1/6th of what this guy was doing. The United States might start to implode upon itself.
Berlusconi's a pimp, no doubt about it. I wish all politicians were as fun.