Italians in huge numbers on Saturday took to the streets in Rome to protest against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government. The protest called by the opposition accuse him of altering laws of the country to further his interests, paying scant attention to other pressing issues the nation faced. The protesters gathered at the Piazza del Popolo said employment, education and health should be the main aspects of campaigning for the upcoming regional elections end March.
Protesters were also furious with Berlusconi and his allies for an order that allowed members of the party to appear on election lists, though they missed a filing deadline. Berlusconi's Freedom Party was ill-prepared for the regional elections, missed the deadline for registration of candidates and was excluded from the elections. Subsequently, a top administrative court in the country also ruled against the inclusion of Freedom Party's coalition candidates for Lazio region that also includes Rome.
But Berlusconi once again fired and his government passed an emergency degree to include his party's list in the regional elections. He went on say his party's list was excluded to discredit the party and that he would upkeep the interest of democracy in Italy.
Berlusconi has been involved in many other controversies and is currently in discussions with his political allies on the implementation of a package of justice reforms. The proposed reforms include three draft bills that would allow the Italian premier to overcome a Constitutional Court order that stripped him of immunity from prosecution and permitted the reopening of several fraud and tax trials against him. One of the proposed bills reportedly limits the length of Italian trials to six years, instead of allowing them to last over a decade as under the present system.
The Italian prime minister was dealt a severe blow when a constitutional court overturned a law that granted him immunity from prosecution. Berlusconi was involved in two separate trials when the immunity law was passed by the Italian parliament last year, one over tax evasion charges and the other involving British tax lawyer David Mills. In one of the cases, Berlusconi was accused of tax evasion and false accounting related to the purchase of TV and film rights in the United States by one of his companies, Mediaset, in the late 1990s.
Berlusconi also continues to struggle with the damage inflicted to his political image by a sex scandal in which he was accused of using the services of prostitutes. Berlusconi's private life too has been in the spotlight ever since he had to split with his wife of 19 years, Veronica Lario. Lario sought to divorce Berlusconi, accusing him of having an inappropriate relationship with a young woman.
Despite all his woes, Berlusconi's popularity briefly rose in the weeks following an injury when a mentally disturbed man hurled an object at him during a political rally in Milan last December.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.