New law made to measure for Berlusconi

“Revolt breaks out over the short statute of limitations," headlines La Repubblica, following heated debate in the Chamber of Deputies over legislation to shorten the statute of limitations (and therefore the length of trials), but which risks annulling thousands of cases still pending – including the one that would see Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on trial for corruption. Outside the Chamber, several hundred demonstrators protested against the government, throwing coins and insults at passing ministers. "This is the intolerable price that Berlusconi wants to charge the Italians," writes the Roman opposition daily. “To ensure their impunity, they must renounce justice." At the same time, the newspaper reports, Berlusconi was visiting the island of Lampedusa, which is going through a humanitarian crisis brought on by the arrival by ship of thousands of refugees from North Africa. He promised the exasperated inhabitants that the migrants would be taken off the island – and announced that he had bought a villa on the island as a show of solidarity, and to boost tourism.