Silvio Berlusconi

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Italy’s prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is still in the hospital today – with a broken nose and teeth knocked out after being attacked on the street by a man wielding a tourist statuette of Milan’s spiky-roofed cathedral.  Images of the bloodied leader all over.  Another chapter in the flamboyant Berlusconi’s controversial rule.

The billionaire media mogul has had a hold on Italy that some call tyranny.  Laced with sex, soap opera and open attacks on the law.  Now he has sympathy, but trouble.

Up next On Point:  we’ll talk with NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli and more on the reign of Berlusconi.
 
Guests:

Sylvia Poggioli, senior European correspondent for National Public Radio.

James Walston, associate professor of International Relations at the American University of Rome, and an expert on Italian politics.

Beppe Severgnini, Italian author and journalist. He writes the daily “Italians” column for Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper. He's the author of several books, some of which have been translated into English, including "La Bella Figura: A Field Guide to the Italian Mind" and "Ciao, America: An Italian Discovers the U.S."