30 October 2009 / AP, ROME
A long-running battle between Silvio Berlusconi and the Italian judiciary flared up again on Thursday as the main magistrates’ association held demonstrations in courtrooms to protest the premier’s latest attack on prosecutors and judges.
Berlusconi has a history of legal woes stemming from his business interests in Milan before he entered politics in the mid-1990s. He lashed out Tuesday at what he said were communist judges and prosecutors intent on destroying him. The judges’ association branded the comments “groundless and ridiculous” and threatened a strike as judges and prosecutors gathered in protest in courtrooms in Milan, Rome and other cities. The accusation that the judiciary is dominated by communists is not new for Berlusconi. But the latest attack came amid heightened tensions over the judiciary, with the premier facing two trials in Milan after an immunity law shielding him from prosecution while in office was overturned earlier this month. “The real Italian anomaly is not Silvio Berlusconi,” the premier said on TV. “The Italian anomaly are communist prosecutors and communist judges in Milan who have attacked him since Silvio Berlusconi has entered politics and taken power away from communists.
