The Loneliness of Silvio B.

Ok, the character may not be one of your favorites—and as for me I have already expressed many times both my personal dislike and my “political acquittal,” so to speak. But this piece by Beppe Severgnini is worth reading:

Some men need an audience just to be able to wake up in the morning. If they can’t find it, they buy it. There is a little of Tiberius (as described by Suetonius) and a little of Hugh Hefner (immortalised by Playboy) in Silvio B. Thus are empires undone, in between parties, debauchery and attempts to stop time, with tricks that time has taught us to recognise. Family and professional success are never enough. What is wanting are cheerleaders, admirers, singers and stages both spectacular and, above all, melancholy. For it is his role to banish melancholia.

Read the rest. See also, by the same author, Berlusconi Explained to Posterity and Friends Abroad (this is an English translation of a chapter from the recently published La pancia degli italiani. Berlusconi spiegato ai posteri).