Political Divorce Italian Style

When the film “Divorce, Italian Style” was released in 1961, a legal divorce was not yet possible in Italy.  So the lead character in this Oscar-winning (for best screenplay) comedy embarks on the only course of action left for him: maneuver his unattractive wife into an affair with another man, kill her as a matter of honor, serve a light prison sentence befitting a crime of passion, and be free to marry his voluptuous 16-year-old cousin.

Flash forward almost a half century.  All Italy has recently been absorbed in the cinema-worthy sequel to this classic.  Veronica Lario, the wife of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, has filed for divorce after a 29-year relationship (including 19 years of marriage) and three children (all born before the marriage, since Berlusconi had been inconveniently married to another woman when he and Veronica first met in 1980).

Why now?, some people wonder.  After all, Lario and Berlusconi have not been living together for more than a decade and she rarely attended political gatherings as “the wife of” during Berlusconi’s two earlier stints as prime minister.  However, in recent weeks the prime minister named as candidates for the European Parliament four young, good-looking women whose backgrounds were ballerina, actress, singer, and former Miss Italy contestant.   Lario’s response was a public letter to the Italian news agency ANSA: "What's happening today behind a front of bodily curves and female beauty is grave. Someone wrote that all this is to sustain the enjoyment of the Emperor. I agree with this - what has emerged is shameful trash, all in the name of power.”

Berlusconi also showed up at the 18^th birthday party of a young woman who called him “Pappy” and disappeared from public view as soon as the press started questioning her.     Asked about the birthday appearance, Lario said,  "It surprised many people, including me, mainly because he has never attended the 18th birthdays of any of his children, even though he was always invited."  

Speculation about possible pedophilia overlapped with more discrete musings about paternity.  But, as a journalist friend of mine explained, “You can’t voice your opinions publicly.   Italian laws on privacy are very strict and the prime minister doesn’t hesitate to sue his opponents.” Since he is the country’s third richest man, he has very deep pockets to finance his legal vendettas. 

The press, print and television, have not sunk their teeth into this situation as much as we in the US would expect from such a goldmine of gossip, but that is understandable.  Berlusconi controls, directly or indirectly, six of the seven major television stations in the country and major newspapers and magazines representing half of Italy’s media.  So for now, Lario is being trashed in the Berlusconi-controlled press as a woman manipulated by her husband’s political enemies.  Pictures of her nude during her actress days (she wasn’t exactly a Shakespearean actress) have circulated widely.  A well-known talk show on a Berlusconi channel devoted an entire evening to an appearance by the prime minister in defense of his actions.  Public opinion polls cited in his newspapers support his contention that the Italian public LOVES a 72-year-old leader who squires around buxom beauties and makes off-color remarks with aplomb.   It is more exciting than a 52-year-old woman who bleats about a straying husband and has been known to engage in her own peccadilloes.

Lario may be airing her grievances publicly in the hopes of obtaining a more advantageous divorce settlement.   However, she is a wealthy woman in her own right – not a billionaire but more than comfortable – so this may not be her ultimate objective.  She hired a woman lawyer to represent her who is more known for taking on high-profile headline cases than divorce cases per se, so some politics may well be involved (Lario has rarely trumpeted her left-of-center inclinations but she has not denied them).

Then there is the motherhood aspect.  Berlusconi’s two children from his first marriage (Piersilvio and Marina) occupy executive positions of significant power in two of his major holdings, Fininvest and Mediaset.  The three children from his relationship with Lario — Barbara, 24, Eleonora, 22 and Luigi, 20 —together own a little more than 20 percent of Fininvest.  Perhaps Veronica is defending her children’s’ interests as much as her own honor?  

Confronted with the prospect of a protracted divorce from a man experienced in legal maneuverings, maybe Veronica should go back to the script for the original Divorce, Italian Style:  find her incorrigibly-amorous husband in frequentis delicti and do the honorable thing . . . provided, of course, that Italy views male and female “crimes of passion” with equanimity.  Which, given the lack of progress for women over the past 50 years, is not likely. 

                                                      ###

Based in Italy, Claudia Flisi writes about business and culture for the International Herald Tribune and many other publications, and for corporate clients ranging from Apple (computers) to Zegna (clothing). She can be reached through her website at flisi.net.  Her thoughts about European women and beauty are found here:  http://frenchfacelift.blogspot.com/