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Berlusconi missed Bridge Meeting for a phone call at NATO Summit
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by Ravi Dixit | April 4, 2009 at 12:25 am
864 views | 23 Recommendations | 7 comments
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NATO Summit : Berlusconi missed Bridge Meeting for a phone call | Photo 02
uploaded by Ravi Dixit
The Gaffe Prone nature of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was at his prime best during the Nato Summit in Strasbourg. In the full glare of World Media; He missed the entire symbolic Bridge Crossing ceremony as he was buzy talking on his mobile phone!!! Faux Pas? Once again?
First he walked away from the German Chancellor Angela Merkel while talking on his mobile phone. Merkel kept on waiting for him. She kept on waiting for him and was welcoming other Nato leaders. The last to be welcomed by Merkel was British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Both Brown and Merkel looked towards Berlusconi she raised her hands and clearly told Brown that he walked away from her.. post this both decided to walk inside and leave Berlusconi with his mobile phone...
All the leaders came out and walked towards the bridge and crossed over from the German side to the French side where French President Sarkozi met them for a Photo Op. Mr. Berlusconi was missing from this symbolic moment.
Finally he did make it to the ceremony to honour Men and Women who died in the line of duty during various NATO Operations.
I was obviously watching it on television and BBC, some of the screen grabs are being uploaded along with the story and it did make for some astonished news anchors. Guesse going around range from Home shopping to his coalition under threat. Whatever the reason it did look in really bad taste that the leader of a country just walks away or in other words snubbed the German Host and continues to talk on his cell phone. :-)
As per the BBC he was trying to break the deadlock over the next Secretary General of NATO. Presumable he was talking with the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to negotiate around Turkish objections to Poland Taking the post of Secretary General of NATO!
TOP Media Headlines about Latest Berlusconi Faux Pas and His Mobile: Perhaps Nokia Can use him in their next campaign:
Merkel snubbed by BerlusconiAnd many more links, increase by the hour....
Berlusconi in new gaffe at NATO summit
DDP/AFP – Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi made a fresh faux pas on Saturday, talking on his mobile instead of … 1 hr 42 mins ago
KEHL, Germany (AFP) – Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi made a fresh faux pas on Saturday, talking on his mobile instead of posing for a group photo with NATO's other 27 leaders on a bridge spanning the Rhine.
Arriving on the German side of the river, Berlusconi got out of his limousine with his cellphone to his ear and turned his back on Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel instead of walking to greet her.
Now does this classify for an eyewitness account :-) I was not there for the ceremony but the ceremony did come to my drawing room :-)
NATO SUMMIT 2009 : Strasbourg, France 60th Anniversary of NATO
NATO leaders were gathering on a footbridge over the Rhine river separating France and Germany, which are both hosting a two-day NATO summit that concludes Saturday.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will walk from one side and French President Nicolas Sarkozy planned to walk from the other to meet in the middle and greet each other. The handshake will be a symbol for France rejoining NATO's military command more than four decades after it left.
Previous Faux Pas of Bresluconi: Called OBAMA Tanned!
Italian prime minister hails 'tanned' Obama Italy's gaffe-prone Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Thursday praised U.S. president-elect Barack Obama as "young, handsome and tanned", prompting harsh criticism from left-wing politicians.
Some other coverage of the same event: BBC's website had this story good 2 hours after Now Public :-)
An Italian government source said he had been talking to the Turkish delegation in an attempt to settle a dispute over who should be the alliance's next secretary general.
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi made yet another faux pas on Saturday, talking on his mobile instead of posing for a group photo with NATO's other 27 leaders on a bridge spanning the Rhine.
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Ravi Dixit
Mumbai, India
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (7)
at 04:41 on April 4th, 2009
I never understood how Italian could vote for him. He is the next Mussolini.
at 07:08 on April 4th, 2009
Paschen, he gets votes because to the minds of centrists and the right, he is better than their left. The real problem for the right in Italy is that there better politicos in Berlusconi's coalition that are ex-fascists, but they won't get the vote while the ex-communists, such as Massimo D'Alema, are acceptable.
Both sides in Italy did some real transformations of themselves in the mid-90s. The fascist party reformed itself and the communist party reformed itself, completing a transformation that had begun with Berlinguer, but was incomplete.
at 07:12 on April 4th, 2009
Roy, you are going over the top by clamming that the Communist party are the former Fascist.
What is Mussolini his Grand daughter and her party then?
I did follow the election in Italy as many other elections there. Italy has always been a political chaos and circus.
at 09:08 on April 4th, 2009
NO, Paschen. I didn't say that. If I gave that impression, that was a mistake.
The Italian Communist Party, Partito Communisto Italiano, renounced communism, and the ruling "pento-partito", the coalition of five parties, the Christian Democrats, Social Democrats, Republicans, Socialists, and Liberal party, that had run Italy for about 40 years underwent a massive transformation.
When the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union died, there was a major scandal ("Tangentopoli") in Italy about kickbacks and hundreds of politicians and others were arrested and a couple of dozen actually committed suicide.
The Christian Democrats split, the Liberal and Republican parties died, the head of the Socialists, Craxi, fled the country rather than go to prison.
While all this was going on, the Italian fascist party (MSI) renounced its fascist tenets, and the Italian communist party renounced their communist tenets.
The left ex-communists formed the "Democratic Party of the Left", with an oak tree as their symbol and ran together with the left half of the old Christian Democrats. The left had their first election triumph. Romano Prodi, ex-Christian Democrat, became the left's first prime minister of Italy. Later, Massimo D'Alema became the first ex-communist to become prime minister under the new Partito Democratico della Sinistra in coalition with the ex-Christian Demos.
Prodi went on to become the president of the European Union.
The ex-fascist party combined with Berlusconi's party, Forza Italia, and the Lega Nord to start a new center-right coalition.
The communists who wanted to continue being communist started "Refondazione Communista" and the fascists who wanted to remain fascists started their own party as well.
I am not sure what happened to Mussolini's granddaughter, but I am pretty sure she stayed with Fini's new ex-fascist party. I will check on that.
at 04:47 on April 5th, 2009
Roy, The politics of Italy take place in a framework of a parliamentary, democratic republic, and of amulti-party system. Executive power is exercised collectively by the Council of Ministers, which is led by the President of the Council, in jargon referred to as "premier", "primo ministro" or "prime minister" in English. Legislative power is vested in the two houses of parliament primarily, and secondarily on the Council of Ministers. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislative. Italy has been a democratic republic since 2 June 1946, when the monarchy was abolished by popular referendum (see birth of the Italian Republic). The constitution was promulgated on 1 January 1948.
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If you noticed the Government has 344 seats versus 286 for the total opposition and the left lost only a total of 90 seats, from the previous elections why they never held the power in the first place, yet the election prior they had another 30 seat and prior to that they lost 68 seats. It has been a circus since 1948 of back an forth. The wall came down and Italy remained the same. A political nightmare. BTW Communism is making a strong come back in Europe as well as Socialism. Not to be confused with fascism.
at 08:44 on April 4th, 2009
He is a bit of a mess isn't he? I can't say this looked good for his reputation, although the YouTube video is quite funny!
at 09:16 on April 4th, 2009
Mussolini's granddaughter formed her own party after having problems with Fini, head of the old ex-fascist party, refounding the party while renouncing fascism.
Great article on Alessandra Mussolini at Wikipedia.