Time to say ciao to Silvio Berlusconi Telegraph

For 17 years, everything has been seen through the distorting lens of his tv channels. Everybody was obliged to be either pro-Berlusconi or anti-Berlusconi, as if this were the only political issue of the day, of every day. The biggest headline was always his. The most powerful images, his too: his face-lifts, crass jokes, blunders, his women (who got younger as he got older), palatial villas and, at all times, his disquieting, deodorant smile.While the cameras focused on his optimism and panache, the reality was disappointment and decline. There was an initial period when Berlusconi genuinely sought to modernise, claiming he would run the country like a company. He reckoned without the power of the unions and Italy’s deeply entrenched regional divisions.