Talk:Silvio Berlusconi/Archive 5

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Berlusconi ‘called Merkel an unfuckable lard-arse’

• Berlusconi ‘called Merkel an unfuckable lard-arse’ thefirstpost.co.uk. Are there any other sources on this?

216.172.135.21 (talk) 18:42, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

US or British English swearwords?

I was wondering whether there is a convention for deciding whether this article (or any other) should adopt US or British English. In most articles there is no discernible difference in tone, but in this article Berlusconi's gaffes are translated using Americanisms ("lardass" instead of "lardarse", coglioni translated as "assholes") which read a bit oddly (particularly "assholes"/"arseholes" which doesn't really carry the same meaning in UK English - it's unpleasant people rather than morons). So we might be losing a bit of the accuracy here. Just a thought. - Peeper (talk) 09:54, 30 September 2011 (UTC)

Well, first of all, there's way too much material on the "gaffes". It should be cut by a factor of at least three (last time I looked). We could preferentially remove the ones that cause translation difficulties; one is pretty much as good as another, so why not get rid of the ones that cause us problems?

However, if they're to be kept, surely some WP:COMMONALITY can be found. There is no particular reason to favor one variety of English over the other here. (By the way, in my US usage, "asshole" does indeed connote an unpleasant person -- more than unpleasant, really; someone who makes you lose control of your anger.) --Trovatore (talk) 09:58, 30 September 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for clarifying. I agree that this section is overlong - laboriously so - so I've made a tentative start at cutting out some of the less significant accounts. One wasn't really a gaffe, and one or two were basically silly stories (the Merkel "Oh, Silvio" story made famous by Have I Got News For You, for instance). These were of little importance in comparison with incidents that had diplomatic repercussions (eg his comments about Martin Schutz or Tarja Halonen), gave rise to allegations of racism or antisemitism (Obama's "suntan" or the Vatican criticism"), or caused major uproar in Italy (his comments about being unlikely to avoid rape or about the L'Aquila "camping weekend"). But I think we could do more to bring this down to manageable size. Peeper (talk) 11:58, 3 October 2011 (UTC)

Peeper, the best policy is to use whatever words the reliable sources translate them as. IF there are UK and US sources reporting on the same words translating them differently, try to find the Italian words and present a list of translations (i.e.) Italian word (US: X, UK: Y) WhisperToMe (talk) 17:25, 4 October 2011 (UTC)

Sources

• Severgnini, Beppe. "The Secret to Berlusconi's Dolce Vita." The Wall Street Journal. September 24, 2011.

WhisperToMe (talk) 17:25, 4 October 2011 (UTC)

US 2011 Trafficking in Persons report

I have updated the article to include the accusations contained within the US State Department's 2011 Trafficking in Persons report. fr33kman 15:04, 1 November 2011 (UTC)

planned resignation and failure of "absolute majority" on financial bills

Hi, i'm an Australian editor who is interested in reading overseas political articles from time to time, I thought i'd come here for all the latest on this issue. I note the article is very big and has detailed sub-articles, i've attempted to find this information but all I can find is one sentence at the end of the lead. Is there any other information available or is this it, so far? Timeshift (talk) 05:12, 9 November 2011 (UTC)

While that is sometimes a reasonable strategy, please keep in mind that Wikipedia is not a news source; it's an encyclopedia. It reacts faster than Brittanica, but if you want news, you might consider CNN, or if you read Italian, http://www.corriere.it or http://www.repubblica.it . --Trovatore (talk) 05:19, 9 November 2011 (UTC)

Whilst wikipedia is not a news source, I do tend to appreciate wikipedia's fullness over media outlet shallowness with it's typically extensive documentation of political events like an impending Prime Ministerial resignation as a result of a failure to pass legislation/losing confidence. I just thought that the article would have had it by now. Also, I went to the Main Page first, thinking it might have been in "in the news". The best I can get is translated wikinews :\ Timeshift (talk) 05:24, 9 November 2011 (UTC)

It's not about news. It's about comprehensive coverage of all the important events related to the fall of Berlusconi and the economic crisis which hit Italy during the last months of his premiership. I repeatedly visited this article the last month and the necessary information was not just there. I have already in the past expressed my concerns about the structure of the article which focuses on various controversies and legal problems but fails to present a comprehensive encyclopedic biography of Berlusconi.--Yannismarou (talk) 10:19, 13 November 2011 (UTC)

Broken references

The references in the 'Bettino Craxi' section are totally broken. For example, the article text 'including the Prime Minister, immunity from prosecution while in office2.' links to the reference section, and apparently is intended to point at the reference 'Technically, Berlusconi has been sworn in four times because after a cabinet reshuffle, as happened with Berlusconi in 2005, the new ministry is sworn in and subjected to a vote of confidence.'

Which is completely wrong, as it says nothing at all about immunity. This is not surprising, because when I look at the source for this section, I see wikimarkup which looks like "^{[[#References|2]]}". Needless to say, this is the stupidest and most broken reference style I have ever seen, and the other examples in that section are just as painful to look at. I couldn't bring myself to see whether the rest of the article is infected with this stuff. --Gwern (contribs) 15:18 23 July 2008 (GMT)

But WTF???? Are you trying to write a biography instead of a simple and concise biographical article??? That's longest than Nixon's one!!!

Article split

I think it's high time the controversies of Berlusconi get their own article. Therequiembellishere (talk) 04:40, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

I tested something in my sandbox: such article would become a 91k article with 157 notes, while this one is currently @141k with 194 notes. Splitting only Berlusconi jokes will generate a new 24k article with 42 notes. Any idea? --Juanm (talk) 21:04, 21 September 2011 (UTC)

Did you consider the legal issues as controversies? Because that's the idea I had. I hadn't realized that his political career had recently been split too, and scrolling through the page, I can see that this would barely leave an article. However, as it stands, almost the entire article is legal and other controversies, and this needs to be amended somehow. I think if some more of the major content from his political career article was reflected here and do the same with the major legal/other controveries, we can still split the article and make the main one more concise (and less potentially libellous). Therequiembellishere (talk) 21:29, 21 September 2011 (UTC)

Well ... I was referring to the whole section 6 (Silvio_Berlusconi#Controversies). The legal issues already have their own main article (Trials_involving_Silvio_Berlusconi). Maybe we can split such section in more than an article. --Juanm (talk) 06:32, 22 September 2011 (UTC)

Either way, go for it. This article needs to be a more balanced overview than it is now. Rich Farmbrough, 15:53, 6 October 2011 (UTC).

Done. —James ^{(Talk • Contribs)} • 8:53pm • 10:53, 14 November 2011 (UTC)

• Thanks for helping to clean up. The article's flow looks much better now. - Mailer Diablo 16:39, 18 November 2011 (UTC)

Successor

The news reports have said only that Mario Monti is expected to be confirmed as his successor. Please don't jump the gun on this.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 21:09, 12 November 2011 (UTC)

And this point still holds even though Monti has now been officially charged to form a government. Until Monti 1) succeeds in doing that and 2) is sworn in, he is not officially PM. Or at least that's my understanding. Monti is now "PM designate", as the BBC says, but in Italian politics figures asked to form a new government don't always succeed in doing so, in which case the President calls on someone else to try. That's the official constitutional procedure. In the current situation, it seems highly unlikely that Monti will not succeed in gaining parliamentary support to form a new government. But that's another question—we're not there yet.--MistyMorn (talk) 19:23, 13 November 2011 (UTC)

Vacant office?

My understanding is that, in line with the Italian Constitution, President Napolitano has formally requested Berlusconi and his ministers to remain in office to cover day-to-day responsibilities until such time as a new government can be formed and instated. Hope this helps--MistyMorn (talk) 16:05, 13 November 2011 (UTC)

Indeed. They call this a caretaker government. In Belgium, for instance, a similar situation is going on for more than a year. Ivo von Rosenqvist (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 16:32, 13 November 2011 (UTC).

This was the official statement from the President's office (12 November 21.41): ...ha invitato il governo dimissionario di rimanere in carica per il disbrigo degli affari correnti.--MistyMorn (talk) 16:58, 13 November 2011 (UTC)

It's also spelt out in English in this BBC article: Mr Napolitano's spokesman Donato Marra said the president had invited the outgoing government to "remain in power in order to finish current business. So, for the time being, Berlusconi remains PM.--MistyMorn (talk) 17:37, 13 November 2011 (UTC)

Sorry but Silvio Berlusconi's Cabinet is still in office to deal ordinary affairs. See official statement of Quirinale: http://www.quirinale.it/elementi/Continua.aspx?tipo=Comunicato&key=12558 --PaoVac (talk) 18:25, 13 November 2011 (UTC)

Yes, and we should finally be able to make this edit in the coming days. Until then...--MistyMorn (talk) 18:36, 13 November 2011 (UTC)

@Malarious: Unfortunately, B will officially remain PM until the moment the incoming government is sworn in. That's the protocol, not an opinion.--MistyMorn (talk) 19:13, 13 November 2011 (UTC)

Thank you. Therequiembellishere (talk) 22:11, 13 November 2011 (UTC)

You're welcome. I'm trying to confirm the exact moment a PM officially enters office.--MistyMorn (talk) 22:20, 13 November 2011 (UTC)

Oddly enough, I don't see anything in this USAToday story that suggests he's still hanging around.[1] ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:02, 14 November 2011 (UTC)

@MistyMorn: In Italy that happens just after the ministers are sworn in.--78.12.168.206 (talk) 19:47, 14 November 2011 (UTC)

Il Cavaliere (dimezzato)

Just to clarify why I reverted a recent edit: Although he may not be very widely known as Il Cavaliere in English-language media, he most certainly is in Italy [2], where he is almost universally referred to in the press by this nickname. And Il Cavaliere has been picked up by, for example, The Economist. MistyMorn (talk) 21:13, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Support - very common in Italian media to refer to him as such, in fact I have read shorter articles on major news sites that only refer to him as such without giving his name.Connolly15 (talk) 16:05, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

Indeed. And like much else here, the information appears only in the lede. If Cav makes it into the main body of the article, I think it would be appropriate to mention that the title was conferred by Giovanni Leone. MistyMorn (talk) 20:17, 13 February 2012 (UTC)