Berlusconi acts against 'Bribesville' magistrates

Silvio Berlusconi has taken advantage of his coalition government's unassailable majority to launch a frontal assault on the magistrates whose revelations of corruption caused the meltdown of Italy's political parties 10 years ago.

Tangentopoli, or "Bribesville", as the investigations centred on Milan became known, exposed a massive nexus of corruption linking politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen that was robbing the exchequer of billions of dollars every year.

Eight former prime ministers and 5,000 businessmen and politicians were accused of corruption. One principal loser was the Socialist party leader and former prime minister Bettino Craxi, a close friend and patron of Mr Berlusconi, who was convicted of corruption in absentia and died in exile in Tunisia.

Mr Berlusconi, the Prime Minister, has long described Tangentopoli as a "communist plot" and threatened revenge; this week he has finally taken action. On Tuesday he assured the judiciary he had no intention of tampering with its autonomy.

But yesterday members of his party used their majority to insist that a parliamentary commission of inquiry will investigate "any disparity in treatment, any incompleteness or lacunae or omissions" in the work of the Tangentopoli magistrates, "to see if there is any correlation with the pursuit of objectives of a political or ideological nature".

Reaction was swift and bitter. The President of the National Association of Magistrates, Edmondo Bruti Liberati, said: "This is completely contrary to the principle of separation of powers."

Antonio di Pietro, the campaigning magistrate who became famous through his Tangentopoli revelations, said: "This is an immoral act and it will definitely boomerang. It's not those who disclosed the crimes who are guilty but those who committed them."

Mr Berlusconi has spent most of his political energy in the first 18 months of this, his second term in office, forcing through laws to protect himself from the plethora of cases, many alleging corruption, that have dogged his heels for more than 10 years. With the signing into law of a Bill giving accused the right to have their trials switched to another judiciary if they can prove bias, he has achieved what some see as the primary goal of his ministry: to stay out of prison. Now he is moving on to the offensive, seeking revenge on those who brought low the rich and powerful in so spectacular a fashion.