A cartoon by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo captioned “Berlusconi is dead” has caused a stir on social media with some finding it apt and others “disgusting”.
A Charlie Hebdo cartoon entitled Berlusconi is dead, shows two mobsters tossing a coffin into a plastic recycling bin. It refers to unproven allegations of the former-PM’s Mafia links and to his use of plastic surgery.
Yesterday, Berlusconi died aged 86. The magazine then ran what it called an homage titled “The Godfather Silvio Berlusconi Is Dead”.
‘The most mafioso Knight of all’
Berlusconi, who was nicknamed by some as the ‘Knight’, does not get a resounding send off from the satirical paper.
In its piece, Charlie Hebdo describes the politician as “the most mafioso, most corrupt, most cunning and most uninhibited of all” in Italian politics. They were referencing, of course, Berlusconi’s many legal woes and his bunga bunga alleged sex parties.
In the view of Charlie Hebdo’s Gérard Biard, Berlusconi “paved the way for a subtle array of avatars, including Trump who is without doubt the winningest of them”. He also spoke of the ex-premier as “the first to speak of ‘red judges’ and to theorise magistrates’ plots against him.”
And above all, the magazine article continued, “he was the first to de-demonise the far right, ruling, since his first mandate, with the post-fascists of National Alliance and the xenophobic and anti-European regionalists of the Northern League”.
