<nettime> Italy for the Spanish?

[Brian Holmes <106271.223@compuserve.com>]

Legal arguments may soon be brought against Berlusconi, from an unexpected
corner. The newspaper "Il Manifesto" dated today (12/5/01) carries this
short note:

--"A Spanish Step against Euro-Immunity

According to the Spanish Council of State, the minister of justice is the
appropriate agent to transmit to the European parliament judge Baltazar
Garzon's request to suspend the parliamentary immunity of Silvio Berlusconi
and Marcello Dell'Utri, in order to subject them to a trial in Spain (where
they are accused of tax evasion and other crimes in the "Telecinco"
affair). The Council of State reached this conclusion by considering, in
addition to the juridical aspects, the "interests of Spanish foreign
policy." The pronouncement of the Council of State should bring an end to
the paralysis in which the euro-parliament has been plunged: thus far it
has been unable to discuss the argument because Garzon's request was not
"transmitted" by an adequate governmental body, and this was enough for the
president (the conservative Ms Fontaine) to halt the processing of the
request."--

The Spanish will never be able to undo what the Italians have done, if
indeed they make the worst choice tomorrow. But a trial from the outside,
on clear legal grounds, could be an interesting start on the process that
Paola di Maio describes:

"I don't know how we can manage to change the institutions. I guess not
giving in to the temptation of blowing them up is the first step. I guess
asking them to honor the principles that they were instituted to serve, is
the next. I guess stressing that they are acting outside their own legality
of the system that they should be representing is the following."

Yeah, I agree totally, with all that and especially number 1! The problem
is, against neoliberal media populism, it's going to take some real
doing... From all of us....

BH

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