Goodbye to an era

Silvio Berlusconi's frenetic headlong flight has come to an end. Applying a law that bars politicians who have been definitively sentenced to a prison term of two years, the Italian Senate on Wednesday stripped him of his seat in the upper house. And there were clear grounds for doing so. The Supreme Court in August confirmed a four-year prison sentence for tax fraud in the Mediaset case. In the past few weeks, Berlusconi has used a series of desperate measures to avoid being expelled from parliament. He asked for a presidential pardon, he demanded a new trial and tried to provoke a crisis in the government by forcing new elections. All in vain.

Now, at the age of 77 years, deprived of his parliamentary immunity, the three-time Italian prime minister and most influential politician in Italy of the past 20 years faces four other legal cases stretching from bribery to inciting young people to prostitute themselves. A bitter ending for Berlusconi, but above all bitter for Italy, which sees its image in the same mirror. Because the rise of this charismatic and unscrupulous leader is the fruit of a political culture founded on patronage and clientelism resistant to ethical considerations that feeds off the servility of sycophants and the complicity of the public; an arrangement that is not far off from applying to Spain.

The person who will undoubtedly most breathe a little easier from now on is the much put-upon Prime Minister Enrico Letta, who has suffered more than anybody from Berlusconi's destabilizing maneuvers while he struggles to pull the country out of a recession that has already stretched to two years. With the support of Berlusconi dissidents that make up Angelino Alfano's New Center-Right, the coalition government has been strengthened and is less vulnerable to upheavals than before.

Of course Berlusconi will continue to put his oar in and try to sabotage the government. As he himself has said, he is leaving parliament but not politics. He is awash with financial resources, has a platform of media at his service, and the ongoing support of millions of his fellow Italians. With Berlusconi now exposed to the elements and barred from holding office, it remains to be seen whether this loyalty holds up, above all if further convictions are confirmed, which would inevitably lead him to be placed under house arrest.

Everything points to the end of an era. Berlusconi came to the fore 20 years ago as a reformist alternative that has ended up in failure. Hopefully his exit will herald the start of a regeneration of Italian politics.