The second episode of Annozero, a TV programme on Rai2, dedicated to the Prime Minister’s private life, did not betray expectations. Many interviews with showgirls and escorts.

Obviously there was also Patrizia D’Addario, the escort that probably spent a night with Silvio Berlusconi. She drew the picture of a world made of women and business agents, dinners and parties in institutional residences. But Michele Santoro’s real scoop was Bernstein, the Pulitzer Prize, one of the two journalists that unleashed the Nixon scandal, the Watergate.

Live from New York, Bernstein was interviewed by Michele Santoro. He heavily criticized the power in Italy: “Trouble always comes in three”, he warned at the end of Santoro’s programme. So it is not still finished. Will there be a third episode? Considering Berlusconi’s statements before the programme, Santoro should not have any problems. The Prime Minister was insecure and welcomed in a mocking way the anticipations of the TV programmes that dealt with his private performances. Berlusconi’s worries concern Santoro: he does not want him to become a martyr, a victim of the government.

But in practice Ministers Scajola and Romani are still breathing down Rai’s neck, they are analyzing contracts, trying to find a way to change things, starting form those “bad” programmes. So it is a double strategy: on one hand Silvio Berlusconi agrees and smiles, but on the other he mobilizes the government and even the Rai headquarters.

Translated by Chiara Nunnari from John Milton Institute