studentsineurope

Italian Prime Minister Becomes Latest YouTube Casualty

At the end of 2008, an Iraqi threw his shoes at G.W. Bush’s head.  As 2009 draws to a close, a deranged Italian guy launches a souvenir statuette at Silvio Berlusconi’s face.  Maybe next Christmas an anvil will fall on Nicholas Sarkozy, who knows?

Madonn'! That's not marinara sauce!

Berlusconi, the much-loved-or-much-hated Italian Prime Minister, was made the latest YouTube casualty when a man of undetermined psychological health threw a miniature reproduction of Milan’s Duomo cathedral at him, striking Berlusconi square in the face and leaving him bloodied, stunned, and with a busted nose and two broken teeth.  This made for shocking media footage, considering Berlusconi’s larger-than-life persona and untouchable political status.  I’m sure it also provided a moment of glib joy for the Prime Minister’s many detractors, who resent him for any number of offenses (proven and otherwise), including adultery, corruption, monopolistic ownership of the media, demagoguery, suspected mafia ties, and generally being too rich and too powerful for a democratic head of state.  Naturally, a million Facebook groups praising (and vilifying) the statuette-thrower bloomed in the aftermath.  I’m not going to say he deserved it, but you can’t blame people for feeling somewhat vindicated after all the merda he’s dragged Italy through.
Be horrified/indulge your schadenfreude here.