Thatcher backs Italy's Berlusconi

Thatcher says Berlusconi's goals are similar to hers

ROME, Italy -- Former British premier Margaret Thatcher has issued a strong defence of Italy's leading election candidate Silvio Berlusconi.

She has accused his detractors of character assassination and "a Europe-wide attempt to bully national electorates."

Thatcher's backing for Berlusconi comes before Italians go to the polls on Sunday to elect their 59th government since World War II.

Berlusconi's centre-right coalition is pitted against the centre-left bloc led by former Rome Mayor Francesco Rutelli.

Berlusconi, Italy's richest man with around $11 billion in assets, has come in for widespread criticism in the international media for not doing more to settle the conflict between his business and political roles.

In an article sent to Italian newspapers, Thatcher said the tycoon had been subjected to the most ferocious media campaign she had witnessed in 40 years of politics.

"Since this exercise in character assassination was launched, if not necessarily devised, in Britain, it seems appropriate that as a former British Prime Minister I should offer some comments," she wrote in the letter.

"The coordinated press campaign against Silvio Berlusconi and (his party) Forza Italia is...part of a wider campaign against national democracy itself, and it must be defeated."

Thatcher, Conservative prime minister from 1979-90, added: "This is not the first such Europe-wide attempt to bully national electorates."

Berlusconi's allies, his tussles with the Italian judiciary and his vast business empire have earned him the rebuke of some of the leading newspapers and magazines in Europe.

British journal The Economist launched a hard-hitting attack against him last month.

The Financial Times, France's Le Monde, Spain's El Mundo and Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung have since weighed in with articles expressing concern about Berlusconi's push for power at the head of a centre-right coalition.

Thatcher said all the judicial charges against Berlusconi had been dismissed or dropped or were unsubstantiated.

She told Europe's journalists to look for corruption in their own back yards rather than pointing their fingers at Italy.

"I am not sure how well it translates into Italian but in Britain we have an expression to the effect that those who live in glass houses should not throw stones," she wrote.

"Europe today has an abundance of glass houses."

Thatcher said that in long discussions with the 64-year-old media magnate she had been greatly impressed by his qualities.

"It is clear to me -- and it is doubtless equally clear to his opponents -- that his goals are very similar to those which the government which I led pursued in Britain," she said.

"Mr Berlusconi grasps, as too many Europeans do not, that competition not bureaucracy must be the watchword of the new Europe."

With campaigning due to end Friday at midnight, both Rutelli and Berlusconi will make a final push to win over undecided voters with rallies in Naples and Rome respectively.

Six weeks ago, polls gave Berlusconi a 14-point margin over Rutelli. Two weeks ago, when polls were halted, the gap was four percentage points.

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Italian Parliament
Forza Italia
Rutelli 2001

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