Silvio Berlusconi is not a man known for reserved remarks. He once told a German MEP he would make a "perfect" concentration guard in a film his friend was shooting, so it should not be too surprising that in remarks on the euro to his Forza Italia party he said the currency had "screwed everybody".
The target of the comments was not so much the euro as Romano Prodi, the former European Commission president who is expected to run against him in the Italian general election in the first half of next year. Mr Berlusconi's argument runs that Mr Prodi, PM from 1996-98, put Italy into the euro's fixed exchange rates at too high a level, which he says is the root cause of an economic outlook that stretches from recession to zero growth forecasts. He rather conveniently blames the problems on his watch on the man who hopes to succeed him.
The author of the pro-EU British blog Europhobia (who, incidentally, wants to see the Italian PM "out on his money-heavy, principle-light arse") points out it is just another case of a politician scapegoating the EU over domestic difficulties. Since national leaders realised around the end of the 1990s the EU a) allowed them to implement reforms they could never get away with at home and b) then blame it all on "Brussels", this has been a growing trend.
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