September 5, 2003 - 2:00pm -- hydrarchist
Mad? Bad? Dangerous to know? A Clown or a strange type of danger? This interview is very Much Silvio B. unplugged and you can be the judge..
The new imperial vision of Silvio Berlusconi
The Spectator began by asking Berlusconi whether he has mended fences with Chancellor Schröder, after he likened the German Social Democrat MEP, Martin Schulz, to a Nazi camp commandant?
It was I who was offended, my government and my country. I replied with a joke. I wanted to be humorous. The whole of the parliament laughed. My reply was taken and exploited against me. But you know what? It was a reply that was virtually impossible for me to resist because I once broadcast 120 episodes of Hogan’s Heroes in which there was this Sergeant Schulz. You remember? I didn’t even think about it. Schulz was shouting at me — no? And it just came to me off the cuff. I always try to be ironical in my speeches. Anyway, I had a phone conversation with Schröder in which I said my intention had not been to offend and that I was sorry that my joke had upset some people.
What provoked him?
In that sitting of the parliament, the speeches had been prepared beforehand under the direction of the MEPs of the Italian Left. So out came this image of Italy as follows: first, that in Italy there is a man who controls 85 per cent of the Italian press — the opposite is the case: I am the most liberal publisher in history; two, that this person also controls all Italian television — when I have one friend in Italian television who has a 7 per cent share; three, that I trample the Italian judges beneath my feet — and so if Italy were to apply today to join the EU, the application would be turned down. This was the theme of all the different speeches by the Left that day.
