Gallowglass

Polverone

"It's entirely possible that both of them are right" says Glenn Reynolds, commenting on allegations of corruption swapped between Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi and European Commission President Roman Prodi. It's equally possible -indeed probable- that Glenn Reynolds doesn't know what he's talking about. Prodi is almost certainly innocent; Berlusconi has some very serious charges to answer. While Berlusconi is currently standing trial for corrupting the judiciary, Prodi's the subject of unsubstantiated allegations from Berlusconi and a businessman with rather dubious political connections.

In fairness to Reynolds, Italian politics is extraordinarily murky and difficult for outsiders to come to grips with. But Prodi has a remarkable reputation for honesty in a country where political corruption is endemic. Nobody seriously believes the accusations that Berlusconi has leveled against Prodi and Giuliano Amato, another leading leftist with a reputation for probity. Berlusconi, in contrast is rotten - and everyone knows it. As this La Repubblica article says, Berlusconi spent fifty minutes defending himself in court, levelling accusations at all and sundry. However, he didn't once address the charges brought against him - that he had arranged for judges to be bribed through the offices of his political fixer, Cesare Previti, who has just been sentenced to eleven years in prison. La Repubblica describes Berlusconi's outburst in court as a "polverone" - literally a cloud of dust. Or, more poetically perhaps, something like the cloud of ink that a squid squirts out in order to confuse predators, as it tries to wriggle out of their grasp.