Chapter 72: Scandal

In March 1994, Italy's 53rd post-war government was in the midst of intense elections. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

One of the two main forces running for election, Massimo D'Alema and Fasino, leaders of the left-wing Democratic Party, suddenly received an unexpected gift. In an unsigned, unaddressed package contained a 46-page incriminating document, detailing the evidence of the crime and pointing to their biggest rival, Silvio Berlusconi, leader of Italy's right-wing Freedom Alliance and president of Forza Italia.

The incriminating evidence includes: bribing the tax police, bribing people in connection with the purchase of a football club, "cheating on taxes" in the purchase of a luxury villa near Milan, making false accounts in the purchase of the RND Film and Television Group, illegally financing the Italian Socialist Party through an overseas company, the MediaSet television group he controls for suspected tax fraud in the purchase of American film rights, and having paid sexual relations with underage girls.

Massimo D'Alema, Facino and others are cautious about the documents in front of them, but the latest round of polls does not allow them to think too much, and if nothing else, in the final vote on March 10, the right-wing Liberal Alliance will overtake the left-wing Democratic Party by a large margin and gain the power to govern.

Massimo D'Alema, Facino and others used all their power to secretly investigate the source of this document, but unfortunately the person who mailed them this package was very cautious, not only from an unguarded public mailbox in the field, but also from envelopes, papers, and stamps. On the other hand, after their secret investigation, most of this evidence is authentic and credible, and the small amount that cannot be verified is only due to time or the fact that the resources in their hands cannot reach the core of the other party's power, after all, the Left Democratic Party has always been the second largest force in Italy, and their power in their hands cannot be underestimated, if they do not scruple to act secretly, they can dig more information from this document.

What makes the leaders of the left-wing Democratic Party hesitate now is the purpose of the sender, and this matter looks like using them as a knife. Since Berlusconi formed Forza Italia in January this year and joined the right-wing coalition, using the strong propaganda capabilities of his Fenningwest group and the huge prestige he has established as the president of AC Milan, the right-wing coalition has immediately risen and grown rapidly, and with Berlusconi as the leader, many small parties in the originally scattered and contentious right-wing coalition have unified their voices and united under his banner. It can be said that it was Berlusconi who made the right-wing Freedom Alliance.

It is conceivable that if Berlusconi falls or is forced to withdraw due to numerous scandals, the previously dominant left-wing forces will surely crush their opponents in one fell swoop.

So even if they realize that the evidence in front of them is nothing more than bait on a fishhook, they have to swallow it in one gulp.

March 9, the day before the voting deadline for the general election. Beginning in Rome, the capital where the left-wing Democratic Party is most powerful, many newspapers across Italy suddenly published a news item in which Berlusconi, who may be the next Italian prime minister, was listed as many as 14 counts, and even published some written materials of these crimes in detail. As a result, this scandal that caused a sensation in Europe and the whole world spread almost at an explosive speed.

Among the many crimes, Berlusconi was the most lethal for having sex with underage girls for compensation and conspiring with European gambling syndicates to bribe Football Association officials to secretly control the selection of referees to play match-fixing.

If it is only crimes such as tax evasion, bribery, and false declaration of assets, Berlusconi can also argue that it is an attack by his election opponents, anyway, it takes a lot of time to verify these crimes, and the Italian judicial process takes a long time. In 2012, for example, he was sentenced to four years in prison and banned from holding public office for five years for tax evasion in the purchase of broadcasting rights by his television company, Mediaset. However, the court then reduced Berlusconi's sentence to one year in accordance with the "amnesty law" passed by the Italian government in 2006, and because the statute stipulates that the appeal in this case must be completed in 2013, and because Berlusconi is also a member of parliament and enjoys immunity, he cannot be imprisoned during the trial, so he does not have to spend a day in prison.

But having paid sexual relations with underage girls and participating in match-fixing at the club dealt a fatal blow to his fundamental "fame", and Berlusconi, who had been in the Apennine political arena for 18 years, and many scandals of corruption, election bribery, and tax fraud failed to help him, and it was the petty sex crime scandal that disqualified him from the Senate and banned him from public office for life. His political rivals have finally found a breakthrough and taken out the old rival.

Silvio Berlusconi's "sex addiction" is famous all over the world, and after the wall fell down in later generations, his scandals in this area continued to come to light, and as the legendary president of AC Milan, many sports media rushed to report. For example, his famous party with the surname "bunga?bunga", for example, Italian prosecutors found a secret villa of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in the suburbs of Milan, in which 14 beautiful lovers were kept in captivity, but the Milan president's lover lineup is far more than that, and the media alone can name as many as dozens of them.

The scandal that instructed AC Milan to play match-fixing had another far-reaching impact on him, and even directly shook his foundation. Historically, the reason why Berlusconi has always been able to dominate the Italian political arena is because he controls the huge media group and controls the reversal of public opinion to a certain extent, and secondly, because of his identity as the president of AC Milan. Don't underestimate the chairmanship of a football club, football is the number one entertainment medium in Europe, even more than music and movies. With a club of the Rossoneri's calibre with at least tens of millions of fans around the world, these clubs often have more influence and appeal than their own leaders. AC Milan's presidency has amassed Berlusconi's enormous prestige.

But as the saying goes, there are as many hopes as there are disappointments, and after the match-fixing scandal was reported, that reputation was all turned into a negative impact. Historically, because he was the Prime Minister of Italy at the time, he was not in the presidency (the Italian Prime Minister had to resign from all other institutions with which he had a conflict of interest in public office), so Galliani perfectly "carried the bag" for him, but in fact, everyone knew that AC Milan was Berlusconi's word. And this time, he couldn't escape.