Ruby Tuesday

I wonder if any of you outside Italy have heard of  Karima El Mahroug. She’s currently the most photographed, talked about, interviewed signorina around at the moment. And probably the highest paid. You might know her as Ruby.  Many people had her down to be the one to cause the fall of the Berlusconi government but that is clearly just wishful thinking if yesterday was anything to go by. Which brings us to why we’re here.

One night last year Berlusconi telephoned a Milan police station claiming that the young Moroccan they were detaining on theft charges was none other than the granddaughter of Egyptian leader, Mubarak, and that they should release her immediately to avoid a diplomatic to do.  Which is what they did, entrusting her to the care of one of B’s friends, a certain Nicole Minetti …(now that IS another story. Google Minetti and you’ll see what I mean). Instead of taking care of the girl Minetti abandoned her at the house of a prostitute friend a few hours later.

As a result of this and numerous wiretaps Berlusconi is now accused, as you will probably know, of underage prostitution and abuse of office. His people are desperately trying to find a way of avoiding the trial… which had its preliminary hearing today.

So, what happened? Yesterday the Camera, or the House of Commons if you like, voted on whether or not the trial should be judged by the famous ‘communist’ judges in Milan or, as they sustain, by the special political court (which would be much more favourable to B). The political court is called into action to judge a political situation: in this case it could be used assuming that Berlusconi acted in his official role as Prime Minister when he made the call, truly believing Ruby to be related to the Egyptian leader and not just an old pervert using his power to get one of his ‘friends’ off the hook.

Result: 314 for the political court and 302 for the judges in Milan.

In voting for the political court 314 MPs yesterday embarrassed the whole nation and political system. Their ‘Sì’ means “Yes, we truly do believe that Berlusconi acted in good faith when he phoned to release Ruby from the Questura. He sincerely believed he was acting in the interests of the country and was doing his utmost to preserve good relations between Italy and Egypt.” !!!!!! Normally sensible, if not electable, MPs have recently given interviews losing every ounce of credibility: “Of course I believe that the Premier was acting in the interests of the country!”

Their vote yesterday confirms what we already knew: that we have a majority of either a) complete idiots as politicians or b) MPs who are so sick for power, money, status etc. that they are willing to compromise their political dignity to keep it knowing that their loyalty will be highly rewarded.

In the meanwhile Berlusconi has been keeping the country entertained with jokes. If you speak Italian let me know and I’ll point you to some YouTube numbers to die for.