Policies of Silvio Berlusconi

[2] According to his political opponents and business rivals, Berlusconismo is only a form of demagogic populism, comparable to fascism, stressing the fact that Berlusconi has declared his admiration for Benito Mussolini,[3] even though he has criticised the racial Fascist laws and the alliance with Nazi Germany, referring to himself as pro-Israel.

[9] However, national and foreign authors have noticed that Berlusconi's liberal rhetoric was little applied during his governments, never reducing taxes or public spending,[10][11] or also growing its.

[9] A strong reformism is added to these pillars, principally of the form of the Italian state and the constitution"[9] in favour of moving from a Parliamentary system to a Semi-presidential system,[14] a higher election threshold, the abolition of the Senate, the halving in size of the Chamber of Deputies, the abolition of the provinces and the reform of the judiciary, with separation of the careers between magistrates and magistrates's civil responsibility, from Berlusconi considered impartial.

[14] Berlusconi has declared himself to be persecuted by the judiciary, having undergone 34 processes,[15] accusing them of being manipulated by the political left and comparing himself to Enzo Tortora as a victim of a miscarriage of justice.

The Union of Christian and Centre Democrats asked for a proportional electoral law that would not damage small parties and was generally more willing to discuss compromises with the moderate wing of the opposition.

[21] Under his lead the Italian Government also shifted its traditional position on foreign policy from being the most pro-Arab western government towards a greater friendship with Israel and Turkey [citation needed] (Silvio Berlusconi acted as wedding witness for the son of the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2003)[22] than in the past, hence rebalancing relations with all the Mediterranean countries to reach equal closeness with them.

[23] In order to support Turkey's application the Italian Premier invited Prime Minister Erdoğan to take part in a meeting of the European leaders of Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, gathered in L'Aquila for the 2009 G8 summit.

[27] Italian troops were gradually withdrawn from Iraq in the second half of 2006 with the last soldiers leaving the country in December of the same year in the Romano Prodi government administration.

[citation needed] Vladimir Putin has many times expressed his appreciation for the respect shown by the Italian Prime Minister towards the leadership of the Russian Federation.

[32][35] In June Gaddafi made his first visit to Rome, where he met Prime Minister Berlusconi, Italian President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano and Senate's Speaker Renato Schifani.

On 5 April 2009 at the EU-USA summit in Prague Silvio Berlusconi proposed an 8-point road map to accelerate the Euro-Atlantic integration of the western Balkans.

During that summit the Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini urged his European colleagues to send "visible and concrete" signs to the countries concerned (Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia, Montenegro, Croatia, Macedonia, and Albania).