Meanwhile, Fazio-gate, i.e. the story of the alleged misdeeds of Antonio Fazio, director of the Bank of Italy continues to be the object of commentary and further news. For example, in Sunday's Repubblica besides the expected articles of Eugenio Scalfari and Giuseppe Turani there was also what (IMHO) can only be described as a hatchet-job executed at the expense of Fazio's imperious wife Cristina Rosati. The article concludes by observing that the well-known refuge that Fazio finds in the study the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas is equivalent to having the consolation of a lover. St. Thomas would undoubtedly be flattered by this comparison, but one doubts that either Antonio or Cristina share that sentiment.

A more serious aspect of the Fazio saga lies in the question of just who executed the telephone interceptions, and who leaked them to the newspapers. If it turns out to have been magistrates engaged in official investigation, this will give new ammunition to Prime Minister Berlusconi who is engaged in a long term war of attrition against the Italian courts. Moreover, the last thing the center-left opposition wishes to do now, is to cede to Berlusca the opportunity to nominate the next director of the Bank of Italy. This is all the more the case, in view of next springs parliamentary elections, for which Berlusca is already preparing by attempting to place a trusted pawn Alfredo Meocci as operating chief (Director General) of the RAI (the Italian public TV and radio service) while ceding the figurehead presidency to Claudio Petruccioli, a well-liked leftist war-horse closely linked to ex-head of the PCI, Achille Ochetto. Petruccioli is already in place, the selection of the Director General should take place later this week.