Berlusconi's "national hero" in the hot seat

Guido Bertolaso, the all-powerful boss of Italy's civil defence, who has recently distinguished himself by criticising the American relief operation in Haiti, has been placed under investigation by a Florence court in the wake of allegations that he tampered with public calls for tender, including those for the latest G8, on behalf of friendly entrepreneurs, who offered him free dates with call girls. "He is untouchable," Silvio Berlusconi proclaimed when rejecting Bertolaso's resignation. The latter refutes all accusations. The idyll between the Italian government leader and his righthand man has grown stronger over the past few years as Bertolaso has been given the task of tamping down the many emergenciesthat have shaken Italy. "This investigation goes to the heart of Berlusconiism," writes La Repubblica, revealing yet another dimension of "an opaque system that benefits sycophants and restricts opportunities for others."