At the time Berlusconi banner company Mediaset was under investigation for fiscal evasion on the order of 80 to 100 million euro. The case was linked to the All Iberian scandal, that, too, resolved with providential ad personam laws. Investigators accused Berlusconi of using two off-shore companies as a go-between to artificially inflate the price of film and TV rights purchased in the US before being "resold" to Mediaset. Berlusconi paid eventually a few thousand euro to block the case along with a large number of Italians eager to close their far more petty fiscal controversies with the state.

The Court has condemned Italy on the grounds that it violates the principal of equality among all European taxpayers. The Court now has an upcoming hearing for fiscal year 2003.

While on the subject, Berlusconi will hold a cabinet meeting tomorrow in Naples in which he will triumphantly announce that he has solved the garbage problem. The garbage will not be in view. It is now stockpiled outside the city limits under military control- quite often on property belonging to the Vatican. Rental costs have not been disclosed.

The Economist is once again criticizing Berlusconi- or rather, just stating plain facts with a good deal of understatement. At least when it writes about Italy the Economist doesn't wear halters.