Silvio Berlusconi

Silvio Berlusconi (29 September 1936 – 12 June 2023) was an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as the prime minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011.

Quotes

 * Think of how many women there are out there who would like to go to bed with me, but don't know it. Life is a problem of communication
 * Quoted in Alexander Stille, "The Sack of Rome" (2006), page 59.

2000s



 * I have little hair because my brain is so big it pushes the hair out.
 * As quoted in "Did I say This? in The Observer (20 April 2008)


 * We must be aware of the superiority of our civilization, a system that has guaranteed well-being, respect for human rights and — in contrast with Islamic countries — respect for religious and political rights, a system that has as its value understanding of diversity and tolerance … The West will continue to conquer peoples, even if it means a confrontation with another civilization, Islam, firmly entrenched where it was 1,400 years ago.
 * In response to the September 11 attacks of al-Queda, in Berlusconi: "Attacco mirato senza vittime fra i civili", in la Repubblica (26 September 2001)


 * They have tried to hang me on an isolated word, taken out of context from my whole speech … I did not say anything against the Islamic civilization... It's the work of some people in the Italian leftist press who wanted to tarnish my image and destroy my long-standing relations with Arabs and Muslims.
 * His response to widespread condemnation of the above comments, in "In quotes: Berlusconi in his own words" at BBC News (2 May 2006)




 * I am absolutely sure to be the most democratic man to ever become Prime Minister in Italy.
 * ASCA (25 January 2002)




 * I always win, I'm cursed to win.
 * ANSA (24 May 2003)


 * I know in Italy there is a producer, producing a film on Nazi concentration camps. I will suggest you for the role of kapo. You would be perfect for that role.
 * Statement to German MEP Martin Schulz, European Parliament (2 July 2003), as quoted in "In quotes: Berlusconi in his own words" at BBC News (2 May 2006), "Did I say This? in The Observer (20 April 2008), and in Italian at "Silvio Berlusconi vs MEP Martin Schulz; relive the moment" at YouTube (16 April 2008)


 * I'm a man of honour, a truthful person, a gentleman of absolute morality.
 * As quoted in "La Repubblica" (13 July 2003)


 * To do that kind of job you must be mentally disturbed.
 * On magistrates, as quoted in "Did I say This? in The Observer (20 April 2008)


 * If they do that kind of job is because they are anthropologically different from the other human beings.
 * ANSA (5 September 2003)


 * Mussolini never killed anyone, he just sent dissenters abroad for vacation.
 * As quoted in La voce di Rimini (11 September 2003)
 * Variant translation: He never killed anyone, he sent people on holiday to confine them.
 * "Did I say This? in The Observer (20 April 2008)


 * There is a natural right that says that when the state asks you for a third of what you earned through back-breaking work, this seems to you a reasonable demand and you give in. If the state asks you for more, or much more, then it is a clear abuse against you and then you try to find evasive ways to make you feel coherent to your intimate sense of morality and it doesn't make you feel ethically guilty.
 * Addressing the commander of the special italian police corp, Guardia di Finanza, whose job is to fight financial fraud and tax evasion in November of 2003, quoted in la Repubblica (17 febbraio 2004)


 * Let's talk about football and women. … Gerhard, why don't you start?
 * At the Brussels summit, turning to the four-times-married German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, at the end of Italy's EU presidency, in December 2003, as quoted in "In quotes: Berlusconi in his own words" at BBC News (2 May 2006)




 * Foreign press is usually leftist and describes us differently from what we really are.
 * Speech to the association Azzurri nel mondo, Lugano (24 October 2004)


 * If the left wing was to rule, the result would be misery, terror and death, like it happens in every place where communism rules.
 * Quoted in Corriere della Sera (17 January 2005)


 * The left has always been on the wrong side. They were against Hitler, but not against Stalin.
 * Quoted in la Repubblica (3 February 2005)


 * I used all my playboy skills and courted the Finnish President.
 * At the opening of the European Food Authority in Parma (21 June 2005), when asked to explain how Italy managed to get the support of its biggest competitor over the EU Food Authority dispute), as reported in "Foreign Ministry summons Italian Ambassador over Berlusconi comments" in  Helsingin Sanomat (22 June 2005)




 * We must fight against tax evasion but also defend the rights of tax evaders, or companies that make mistakes
 * As quoted in "Did I say This? in The Observer (20 April 2008)


 * I am the Jesus Christ of politics. I am a patient victim, I sacrifice myself for everyone.
 * At the launch of his 2006 campaign, as quoted in "In quotes: Berlusconi in his own words" at BBC News (2 May 2006), and "Did I say This? in The Observer (20 April 2008)


 * By definition, as a Prime Minister I cannot be a liar.
 * Italian Radio National Broadcast (18 January 2006)


 * Thank you dear Father Massimiliano, I'll try not to let you down and I promise you two and a half months of complete sexual abstinence until April 9 [election].
 * Speaking at his party's convention in Sardinia (28 January 2006), as reported in Il Giornale (29 January 2006)
 * Variant translation: I'll try not to let you down and I promise you two and a half months of complete sexual abstinence until election day.
 * As reported in "Did I say This? in The Observer (20 April 2008)


 * Only Napoleon did more than I have done. But I am definitely taller.
 * As quoted in Reuters (9 February 2006), "Berlusconi's boundless modesty: first it's Napoleon, now he's Jesus" by John Hooper, in The Guardian (13 February 2006), and "Did I say This? in The Observer (20 April 2008)


 * Churchill liberated us from the Nazis, Silvio Berlusconi is liberating us from communists.
 * Speech in Ancona (11 February 2006), as quoted in "Did I say This? in The Observer (20 April 2008)


 * Do it my way and earn more money.
 * Advice to Italians trying to escape poverty, in an interview with Italian Telelombardia (6 March 2006)


 * Go and read the black book on communism and you'll find that under Mao's China they didn't eat babies but they boiled them to fertilise the fields.
 * At a rally in Naples (28 March 2006) as quoted in "In quotes: Berlusconi in his own words" at BBC News (2 May 2006)


 * I have Italian citizens in too good consideration to think that there are so many voting assholes (literally: "coglioni", rude word for testicles) around which could vote against their own interests. I apologize for the rude but effective language.
 * Confcommercio meeting in Rome (4 April 2006) as quoted in "In quotes: Berlusconi in his own words" at BBC News (2 May 2006)


 * The April 9th/10th vote is like that one of 1948, when democratic forces rejected the communist offensive and firmly moved the Country to the West, towards democracy and its values.
 * Quoted in "Affari Italiani" magazine (7 April 2006)




 * The journalist Enzo Biagi left the RAI out of free will … he did it for the money.
 * As reported in "Veteran Italian journalist Enzo Biagi, 87, dies in Milan" in Herald Tribune (6 November 2007); Enzo Biagi was one of the journalists that had to leave the RAI after the Editto Bulgaro of in 2002, in which he was accused by Berlusconi of making criminal use of television.


 * The public prosecutor … should be subject to regular examinations to attest to sanity.
 * Calling for psychiatric examinations in regard to the life sentence of the Mafia-member Vittorio Mangano, whom Senator Marcello Dell'Utri, called a hero, as reported in 'Berlusconi: "Perizie per i pm" Dell'Utri: "Mangano un eroe" 'in la Repubblica (8 April 2008)


 * Marcello Dell'Utri is right: Mangano was a hero, because he never invented anything about me.
 * Statement during a television show on La7 (9 April 2008)


 * Ghe pensi mi.
 * I'll handle it.
 * As quoted in "The Day After" by de Gondi at The European Tribune (19 November 2007)




 * They're not gaffes. I've made no gaffes.
 * On previous comments, as quoted in "Did I say This? in The Observer (20 April 2008)


 * The women of the Right are certainly the most beautiful … the Left has no taste, not even when it comes to women
 * As quoted in "Did I say This? in The Observer (20 April 2008)


 * People will vote for Daniela Santanchè because she is a beautiful babe.
 * As quoted in "Did I say This? in The Observer (20 April 2008)


 * Ladies, I have a mission for you on election day: cook! Sweet and exquisite things, please. Bring them to the polling station to be examined. The boldest can try making a tart, the most skilful, profiteroles
 * As quoted in "Did I say This? in The Observer (20 April 2008)


 * It's the fate of the lion in winter: all his billions, all his television channels cannot rescue him from the mockery that rains down on the aged lecher, his powers visibly waning.
 * On aging, as quoted in "Did I say This? in The Observer (20 April 2008)


 * They keep calling me a dwarf, but I'm taller than Sarkozy and Putin.
 * As quoted in "Did I say This? in The Observer (20 April 2008)


 * Barack Obama being young, handsome and sun-tanned is going to get along with you swimmingly.
 * On the US president-elect to Dmitry Medvedev, as quoted in 'Italy's Berlusconi hails "suntanned" Obama' in Reuters (6 November 2008), "Berlusconi faces race row as he calls America's first black president 'suntanned'" in Mail on Sunday (6 November 2008)




 * We could not field a big enough force to avoid this risk [of rape]. We would need so many soldiers because our women are so beautiful.
 * As quoted in "Silvio Berlusconi criticised for 'pretty girl' rape comment" in The Telegraph (26 January 2009)


 * In absolute terms, I am the most legally persecuted man of all times, in the whole history of mankind, worldwide.
 * On prosecutions against him, as quoted in "Silvio Berlusconi: I am inferior to no one in history" in The Guardian (10 October 2009)


 * The real Italian anomaly is not Silvio Berlusconi but communist prosecutors and communist judges in Milan who have attacked him again and again since he entered politics.
 * As quoted in "Silvio Berlusconi booed by audience after angry TV rant" in The Telegraph (29 October 2009)


 * I wish luck to you and your nation that loves you as the election results we can see testify.
 * On Alexander Lukashenko, as quoted in Results of the official visit of Silvio Berlusconi to Belarus at belarus.by (1 December 2009) the official website of the Republic of Belarus

2010s
I would be happy for Gattuso to stay but we are not against people saying they want to leave, We can't exclude [the sale of Huntelaar] even if we are convinced of his qualities as a main striker.
 * We don't want to see just one forward up front. To win you have to score. To have chances you've got to have forwards close to the goal, I appreciated Leonardo a lot but I disagreed with him in how he fielded the team. Ronaldinho must play on the shoulder of the strikers even if he has a tendency to drift left. Ronaldinho has been linked in the media with a move away but Berlusconi was adamant the playmaker was staying. He is the No1 attraction at Milan," he said, "Ronaldinho does not want to leave. I'm sure he is happy to stay.
 * "'New Milan manager must play two strikers,' says Silvio Berlusconi", The Guardian (20 July 2010).




 * They called me, inviting me to watch L'Infedele. I'm watching a disgusting program, run in a despicable, vile and repulsive way. I've heard false and distorted views, far away from the truth. I've seen a representation of reality which is to the contrary of truth.
 * On the TV program L'infedele, called in during the show, reported in "Berlusconi insults Lerner live: you run a brothel program", Repubblica (25 January 2011)]


 * I hope that in Egypt there can be a transition toward a more democratic system without a break from President Mubarak, who in the West, above all in the United States, is considered the wisest of men and a precise reference point.
 * On Hosni Mubarak, in the relation to the 2011 Egyptian protests, as quoted in Berlusconi: Hosni Mubarak Is 'The Wisest Of Men', in The Huffington Post (4 February 2011), and Berlusconi: Mubarak is a wise man at al Jazeera (February 2011)


 * We are worried about everything happening there, in all the area. I haven't yet heard from Gaddafi. The situation is evolving and so I don't feel I should disturb anyone.
 * On the 2011 Libyan protests, as quoted in EU Observer (21 February 2011)


 * Freedom means having the right to freely educate your children, and freely means no obligation to send them in a public school, where teachers want to inculcate principles different from the principles that their parents want to inculcate them in a familiar context.
 * On public school, in Adoptions, gay couples and public school in la Repubblica (1 March 2011)


 * I'm getting out to mind my own fucking business, from somewhere else, and so I'm leaving this shitty country, of which I'm sickened.
 * On Italy, quoted in Berlusconi under fire for controversial comments about Italy at CNN (3 September 2011)


 * The life in Italy is the life of a wealthy country, consumptions haven't diminished, it's hard to find seats on planes, our restaurants are full of people.
 * Denying the heaviness of the Italian crisis, during the news conference after the end of the G20 summit held in Cannes (3-4 November 2011), as reported in "Napolitano ammonisce: attuare impegni. Premier: la crisi non c'è, ristoranti pieni" in Il Messaggero (4 November 2011), and "Silvio Berlusconi shrugs off IMF's financial checks on Italy. Prime minister insists Italy is in good health, with debts under control, and points to full restaurants as proof of strength", The Guardian (4 November 2011)


 * Only the prosecutors' witnesses were admitted, those of the defence were chucked out … Can there be worse justice than this? I am treated like a criminal.
 * As quoted in "Silvio Berlusconi says judges out to 'destroy' him", The Telegraph (16 February 2012)


 * [To the] edge of the abyss.
 * On Italy, as reported in "Italy on 'edge of abyss', says Silvio Berlusconi, offering a hand", The Guardian (9 December 2012)


 * Obviously the government of [Mussolini's] time, out of fear that German power might lead to complete victory, preferred to ally itself with Hitler's Germany rather than opposing it … The racial laws were the worst fault of Mussolini as a leader, who in so many other ways did well.
 * In a speech in Milan, while heading a coallition which includes parties with fascist roots, as quoted in "Berlusconi praises Mussolini on Holocaust Memorial Day", BBC News (27 January 2013)

2020s

 * [On the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine] Putin was pushed by the Russian population, by his party and by his ministers to invent this special operation.
 * The troops were supposed to enter, reach Kyiv in a week, replace the Zelensky government with decent people and a week later come back.
 * The aggression against Ukraine is unjustifiable and unacceptable, [Forza Italia's] position is clear. We will always be with the EU and Nato.
 * Massacres of civilians in Bucha and other localities are real war crimes.
 * "Silvio Berlusconi: Ex-PM defends Russian war on eve of Italian election", BBC News (23 September 2022).


 * I added extra stimulation ... if you win against one of these great teams, I’ll send a bus full of whores to the locker room.
 * Jokingly said to his soccer team Monza A.C., quoted in "Silvio Berlusconi Promises ‘Busload of Whores’ if His Soccer Team Wins", Daily Beast, 14 December 2022


 * (Italian language) [...] io, a parlare con Zelensky, se fossi stato il Presidente del Consiglio non ci sarei mai andato. Perché, come sapete, stiamo assistendo alla devastazione del suo paese e alla strage di suoi soldati e di suoi civili. Bastava che lui cessasse di attaccare le due repubbliche autonome del Donbass e questo non sarebbe avvenuto; quindi io giudico molto molto, molto negativamente il comportamento di questo signore.
 * [...] I, talking to Zelensky, if I had been the Prime Minister I would never have gone. Because, as you know, we are witnessing the devastation of his country and the massacre of his soldiers and civilians. It was enough for him to stop attacking the two autonomous republics of Donbass and this would not have happened; so I judge very very, very negatively the behavior of this gentleman.
 * lavocedinewyork.com/en/news/2023/02/13/berlusconi-supports-putin-zelensky-attacked-republics-of-the-donbass/, La Voce di New York, 13 february 2023
 * original italian language audio source: www.ansa.it/sito/notizie/politica/2023/02/12/berlusconi-da-premier-non-sarei-mai-andato-da-zelensky_c3f4cd65-ccb9-4f0d-b813-9cc8a4b26379.html (video from 00:02 to 00:30)

Quotes about Berlusconi

 * Alphabetized by author




 * One of the wildest elections in Italian history is finally over. And as expected, it came down to one guy, the guy who inspired a group of topless female protesters to storm his polling station. That looks so inappropriate. Shouting, "Enough, Berlusconi, enough!" That's right. Bunga, bunga is back. Yesterday and today, all of the headlines had been about Silvio Berlusconi's amazing return to power. There's just one problem. He lost. When all the votes were counted, Silvio finished with 31 percent, a strong showing but only good enough for second place behind a guy called Pier Luigi Bersani.   But still every headline is about sweet Silvio, because sometimes you don't have to be first to be famous. Even people who hate him, and there are a lot of them, want to read and hear about him. … Silvio, Danica and Tiger, what a threesome. They're not famous for nothing. They are hugely successful at a level that most of us can only dream of. But what really matters is that they have that something, that ineffable and intangible something simply known as star power. People care about them. That's even when they lose, they're the ones we want to hear about. And maybe that's a great gift or maybe it leads to an intense stressful life since every loss and every failures in the headlines you can't have any secrets. Only perfection is enough.
 * Erin Burnett, on Erin Burnett Outfront (26 February 2013)


 * To me Silvio Berlusconi incarnates all the qualities a stateman should have. When I studied politics, I was taught that the ideal politician is a man who having had success in his own profession and not having economic worries for himself and his family, decides to devote part of his life to the service of his people at the local or national level, which is tantamount to saying that the ideal politician ought to be:
 * • A self made man, who, as such, has already proven his work capabilities,
 * • Rich enough to be insensitive to bribery.
 * No matter what his adversaries say, this is the picture of Silvio Berlusconi, who on top of all that, is a very charismatic figure with a great sense of humor, which makes him a political leader ahead of his time, at least for Italy.
 * Giglio Reduzzi, in Berlusconi: The Truth About Italy's Much Maligned Premier (2010), p. 25