Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has vowed to stay on in office, despite a Supreme Court ruling that three old corruption and fraud cases against him can be reopened.

Listen to a Newsline interview with Prof Franco Ferrarotti:

One of Mr Berlusoni's first moves on taking office last year was to introduce a law giving him immunity but the Court has now ruled that he law violates the constitution.
 

Laughable
Mr Berlusconi has said the charges are laughable and accused the Supreme Court of being biased. He has also blamed President Napolitano for appointing “too many left wing” judges in Italy’s Supreme Court. One-third of the fifteen members are appointed by the President.
 

Mr Berlusconi was charged with bribery, tax fraud and corruption in three separate cases. These were frozen when the immunity law was introduced last year.
 

Ridiculous
Mr Berlusconi, whose position has already been weakened by a flow of sex scandals, has vowed to “make my accusers look ridiculous and to show everyone what stuff they are made of and what stuff I am made of”.

Italian sociology professor Franco Ferrarotti is not surprised by Mr Berlusconi’s defiance but thinks the Prime Minister is wrong. “The Supreme Court emanates a ruling and any good, bonafide democrat would accept that. Berlusconi does not”, he says.

Observers fear that the ruling may have far reaching effects on Mr Berlusconi’s position and may destabilise Italian politics. 
 

No dissaproval
Even so, the Italian public hasn’t yet shown massive disapproval. Professor Ferrarotti points out that this shouldn’t surprise us: “It is a special brand of populism that we get here”, he says. “Mr Berlusconi not only thinks he represents and understands the people, but he also feels he is the embodiment of the people. That gives him almost total infallibility and many people accept that. It is in the nature of this man not to give up”.
 

Manipulation
Professor Ferrarotti says these developments won’t do much to help improve the international view on Italian democracy. “We have a democracy here, with free elections and free propaganda”, he says, "but what’s peculiar is that our leader is also the owner of four private TV networks and that he, being the Prime Minister, also has a great influence on public TV stations. That’s clearly a conflict of interest and there is also a problem of possible manipulation of public opinion. But do Italians care? No, they don’t”.

“Some say it’s very Italian, or very Mediterranean”, Prof Ferrarotti adds. “Somehow we seem to indulge in murky situations”.