Italian premier Berlusconi bloodied by protester

Hopefully they throw that scumbag away for a long time.I wonder if the Bush bashers were salivating and thinking to themselves if only someone did that to Bush.


Italian premier Berlusconi bloodied by protester - NYPOST.com

ROME — An attacker hurled a statuette at Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, striking the leader in the face at the end of a rally today and leaving the stunned 73-year-old media mogul with a bloodied mouth, police said.

The 42-year-old man accused of attacking Berlusconi in Milan as he signed autographs was immediately taken into custody. The Italian leader was rushed to a hospital where he was being held overnight.

TV showed the stunned Berlusconi with blood under his nose, on his mouth and under one eye as he was lifted to his feet by aides after the attack. The leader was hustled into the back of a car, but he immediately got out, apparently to show he was not badly injured.

Seen it yesterday.
Assaulting a prime minister should earn one a life in prison in my opinion.

Not that I wish this on Obama, but it would be interesting to see the reaction on the left if it occurred.

On one side any attack on a political leader is serious in a democratic country.

On the other side, it is Berlusconi... could not have happened to a nicer guy.


I have no doubt that he will exploit it to the fullest with a crackdown on "leftist" groups and immigrants.. basically anyone in the opposition to him. I would also not be surprised if he had staged the whole damn thing himself, considering his reaction after being attacked...

The question is if it will mean more sympathy for him or just harden the opposition to him and his policies. Of course I hope the latter, there is no room for another El Duce in Europe.

PeteEU said:

On one side any attack on a political leader is serious in a democratic country.

On the other side, it is Berlusconi... could not have happened to a nicer guy.


I have no doubt that he will exploit it to the fullest with a crackdown on "leftist" groups and immigrants.. basically anyone in the opposition to him. I would also not be surprised if he had staged the whole damn thing himself, considering his reaction after being attacked...

The question is if it will mean more sympathy for him or just harden the opposition to him and his policies. Of course I hope the latter, there is no room for another El Duce in Europe.

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What? :shock: Yeah, he staged losing two teeth and a broken nose.....For the love of.....



j-mac

j-mac said:

What? :shock: Yeah, he staged losing two teeth and a broken nose.....For the love of.....

j-mac

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This is a man who had a face lift and hair plugs... I think he can stand a bit of pain as long as he wins.

PeteEU said:

This is a man who had a face lift and hair plugs... I think he can stand a bit of pain as long as he wins.

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Who cares about his vanity? I was just aghast that you find it acceptable that a head of state is attacked physically because you don't like him? And then accuse him of staging it.....I guess credibility is of no concern eh?


j-mac

jamesrage said:

Hopefully they throw that scumbag away for a long time.I wonder if the Bush bashers were salivating and thinking to themselves if only someone did that to Bush.


Italian premier Berlusconi bloodied by protester - NYPOST.com

ROME — An attacker hurled a statuette at Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, striking the leader in the face at the end of a rally today and leaving the stunned 73-year-old media mogul with a bloodied mouth, police said.

The 42-year-old man accused of attacking Berlusconi in Milan as he signed autographs was immediately taken into custody. The Italian leader was rushed to a hospital where he was being held overnight.

TV showed the stunned Berlusconi with blood under his nose, on his mouth and under one eye as he was lifted to his feet by aides after the attack. The leader was hustled into the back of a car, but he immediately got out, apparently to show he was not badly injured.

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:lol: @ Berlusconi "accident".. He so deserved that, he deserve that from every Italian.

American said:

Not that I wish this on Obama, but it would be interesting to see the reaction on the left if it occurred.

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Probably the same as everyone is saying here. The attacker should be prosecuted for his actions. Do you think they would say something different?

Gibberish said:

Probably the same as everyone is saying here. The attacker should be prosecuted for his actions. Do you think they would say something different?

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I think that the first and most often reported blurb, true or not would be an assumption that someone on the right would be responsible.


j-mac

j-mac said:

Who cares about his vanity? I was just aghast that you find it acceptable that a head of state is attacked physically because you don't like him? And then accuse him of staging it.....I guess credibility is of no concern eh?


j-mac

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His vanity is everything for him. He has formed his whole political career around his "looks".. with a good looking wife, and loads of good looking female ministers.

As it stands now he is set to gain everything from this attack. You have to remember that before this attack he was under serious pressure from all sides. He is under investigation for massive corruption and has sex scandals hanging over him. By getting attacked like this, sympathy will stream in I bet, and for a time at least focus will be on "poor old Berlosconi" and not his corruption and sex scandals.

As I said, I would not put it past him one bit that this was staged. I even believe the rally he was at was a freaking anti-Berlosconi rally, so why the hell was he there?

PeteEU said:

His vanity is everything for him. He has formed his whole political career around his "looks".. with a good looking wife, and loads of good looking female ministers.

As it stands now he is set to gain everything from this attack. You have to remember that before this attack he was under serious pressure from all sides. He is under investigation for massive corruption and has sex scandals hanging over him. By getting attacked like this, sympathy will stream in I bet, and for a time at least focus will be on "poor old Berlosconi" and not his corruption and sex scandals.

As I said, I would not put it past him one bit that this was staged. I even believe the rally he was at was a freaking anti-Berlosconi rally, so why the hell was he there?

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eh, maybe. I can at least now see why you may think that way. Here in America we are not used to our heads of state being attacked physically, and then sloughing it off as acceptable.

I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt, and in the end pity or not, a rouge will be exposed as such.


j-mac

His attacker has a history of mental health issues. Be that as it may, Berlusconi will hopefully get his just desserts from his mafia court case, recently resumed after the law he introduced giving himself immunity from prosecution was overturned.

BBC News - Italy's PM Silvio Berlusconi is bloodied by attack

j-mac said:

eh, maybe. I can at least now see why you may think that way. Here in America we are not used to our heads of state being attacked physically, and then sloughing it off as acceptable.

I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt, and in the end pity or not, a rouge will be exposed as such.


j-mac

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Nor are we here in Europe dont get me wrong. And it is as a principle not acceptable one bit regardless of who it is.

However this is one of those cases where I toss my principles out the window because of the person.

As for it being exposed as such.. by who? He controls 90% of the media in Italy... who exactly should "expose" him?

Manc Skipper said:

His attacker has a history of mental health issues. Be that as it may, Berlusconi will hopefully get his just desserts from his mafia court case, recently resumed after the law he introduced giving himself immunity from prosecution was overturned.

BBC News - Italy's PM Silvio Berlusconi is bloodied by attack

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Yea that is what the Italian police/government are saying.. funny enough that is also what Berlosconi said about the judges who overturned his immunity and the people who are after him for corruption and the sex scandals..

PeteEU said:

Nor are we here in Europe dont get me wrong. And it is as a principle not acceptable one bit regardless of who it is.

However this is one of those cases where I toss my principles out the window because of the person.

As for it being exposed as such.. by who? He controls 90% of the media in Italy... who exactly should "expose" him?

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Italian media are not the only outlets watching are they?


j-mac

j-mac said:

I think that the first and most often reported blurb, true or not would be an assumption that someone on the right would be responsible.


j-mac

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Same as the right would blame the left for the act if it was a Republican President. Which are fair assumptions from both sides. It is more likely that a member of an opposing party would conduct such an attack before a follower would.

This is terrible. I hope that the statuette is going to be OK. :mrgreen:

PeteEU said:

On one side any attack on a political leader is serious in a democratic country.

On the other side, it is Berlusconi... could not have happened to a nicer guy.


I have no doubt that he will exploit it to the fullest with a crackdown on "leftist" groups and immigrants.. basically anyone in the opposition to him. I would also not be surprised if he had staged the whole damn thing himself, considering his reaction after being attacked...

The question is if it will mean more sympathy for him or just harden the opposition to him and his policies. Of course I hope the latter, there is no room for another El Duce in Europe.

Click to expand...

Doesn't seem like he staged it.
The way he climbed the car to show everyone he's alright and everything surrounding the attack seems to be 100% real.

j-mac said:

Italian media are not the only outlets watching are they?

j-mac

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Nope, but they are the only media the voters for the most part watch. I dont think you quite understand how powerful he is in Italy. When you control that much of a nations media then it is you who shape views as you wish.

In any other society the amount of scandals he has been through, ranging from corruption to sex scandals, any politician would have been forced to resign. But not in Italy, because for the first many years the public outcry was no where near enough to demand it and combined with the near full control of the news media then well.

Now the last half a year the pressure has gotten much bigger. There are massive rallies protesting against him, he is not immune from the corruption cases against him any more since the Italian Supreme Court through out the law he put in place to protect himself, and best of all, his soon to be ex-wife has spilt so many juicy details that even the many sex scandals that have been connected with him are now sticking better than ever. The rumours of ogries with she-males and prostitutes seem more and more credible and that does not please many Italians.... especially when there are pictures, which Berlosconi managed to block in Italy but not in the rest of Europe.

And then out of the blue a man attacks him and one would suspect that sympathy would stream in. That would be natural no? How dare they attack our leader and so on.. happened with Reagan and others.

Now the funny part is that, exactly the opposite seems to have happened from what I can gather at the moment, which is rather ironic. They guy who attacked him, is being called a national hero, so maybe Berlosconi's days are numbered (politically!)

It is as interesting as the fact that one of the witnesses against Berlosconi in one of the many sex scandals happens to commit suicide just before the case was to start...:roll:

Remember also Berlosconi has attempted and is attempting to sue media abroad for publish the sex scandal photos and other things. He is also in a cat fight with Murdoch btw (which is kinda funny) over the Italian market for pay-tv, where Berlosconi is a small player, but Murdoch is the nr. 1 player.

Apocalypse said:

Doesn't seem like he staged it.
The way he climbed the car to show everyone he's alright and everything surrounding the attack seems to be 100% real.

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You mean the way he forced his way OUT of the car after his bodyguards bundled him in, at a rally against him? yea sounds very natural that in a hostile environment where you have just been attacked and are bleeding, that you force your way out of your armoured car to pose for the media...

Let me put it this way.. I trust Bush way more than I trust Berlosconi...

Gibberish said:

Same as the right would blame the left for the act if it was a Republican President. Which are fair assumptions from both sides. It is more likely that a member of an opposing party would conduct such an attack before a follower would.

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Can you show me any examples of the American right being as destructive as those groups associating themselves on the left side of political dissent are documented to be?


j-mac

Maximus Zeebra said:

:lol: @ Berlusconi "accident".. He so deserved that, he deserve that from every Italian.

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Supporting violence is quite repulsive, don't you agree?

PeteEU said:

You mean the way he forced his way OUT of the car after his bodyguards bundled him in, at a rally against him? yea sounds very natural that in a hostile environment where you have just been attacked and are bleeding, that you force your way out of your armoured car to pose for the media...

Let me put it this way.. I trust Bush way more than I trust Berlosconi...

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He is a man that desires the love of the people more than anything else.
It was only expected from him to react that way, to show everyone that he's alright.

I'm just glad that he didn't get badly injured, but still, the criminal should be punished to the full extent of the law.

j-mac said:

Can you show me any examples of the American right being as destructive as those groups associating themselves on the left side of political dissent are documented to be?


j-mac

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I'm not sure what types of examples you are looking for. Show me examples of the left doing these things you are talking about so I can get a better idea.