ASOLO, Italy – On Tuesday, Generoso Armenante, a 49-year-old former security guard at a convenience store in the southern town of Salerno, left home after having lunch with his wife – and quietly found a secluded spot where he hanged himself. 

Armenante had been fired more than a year ago, and had been struggling to find another job ever since. Next to his body he left a letter: “I decided to end it because I am a failure. I can’t live without work.” 

Unfortunately, he is not alone. Tens of other Italians have also chosen to take their own lives in response to the strain of the economic crisis and the consequent austerity measures. 

On Tuesday, two other people committed suicide, apparently due to financial hardship. A 60-year-old businessman in Milan hanged himself from a tree after failing to repay his debts.

And a 64-year-old bricklayer in Salerno, who lost his job around Christmas, shot himself in the chest. He left a similar message: “I can’t live without a job.”

The three men are casualties of the debt crisis that has pushed Italy’s economy to the brink over the past year and put considerable strain on most Italians, especially those who own or work for small businesses. At least 34 people have killed themselves citing economic reasons since the start of the year, according to the Italian Association of Small Businesses. 

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‘If my business fails, I fail with it’
A dramatic hike in taxes, combined with large cuts in public spending, a clampdown on tax evasion and a credit crunch from banks have pushed many Italian businesses to the brink of bankruptcy. 

Some have stuck to the old Italian script, griping about the government measures at the local cafe over a cappuccino and hoping for better times. But others have seen no way out, and have opted for death.  

The most affected region is the relatively prosperous Veneto in the northeast of Italy, home of Venice and an abundance of businessmen. 

In a part of the country that has had a reputation for skilled merchants since Venice was a maritime republic, as many as one in 10 own their own business. Some of the most recognized Italian brands, such as Benetton and Diesel, originate from the area. 

“My business is like my family,” Massimo Zappia, who owns a window frame business in Asolo, a town about 20 miles north of Venice, told NBC News. “I feel responsible for each of my employees. If my business fails, I fail with it.” 

Zappia, 42, blames the credit crisis for some of his woes as a small business owner.  “These days it takes six months for banks to make their mind up for small loans of just a few thousand dollars. And as a businessman, I feel left alone.” 

Struggling to ‘soldier on’
This feeling of failure and loneliness is at the very heart of acts of desperation among the business community in Italy. The message left by Armenante, the security guard who hanged himself on Tuesday is the same mantra repeated by workers and businessmen who either tried to kill themselves and lived to tell the tale or by those who thought about trying, but found other reasons to live. 

Giovanni, who is in his mid-40s and also lives in Asolo, admits that he thought about ending his life after failing to repay a debt of $25,000. The self-employed plumber, who asked that his last name not be used, told NBC News that he only stopped himself because he didn’t want his family to pay for his mistakes, adding that he has a disabled son and a wife with a history of psychological problems.

“It was a dark moment, and I thought there was no way out,” he said. “They strangled me economically; I just can’t keep up with repayments. I got to the point where I couldn’t go back home and look at my wife and children in the eyes, and tell them I didn’t know how to carry on,” he said. 

“There are moments when you think that there is an easy way out. It only takes a moment to die. But then you think of your family and you realize you can’t. You just need to soldier on.”

To help ease the problem, a workers’ association near Asolo started a helpline for people in distress. They received at least 60 calls in their first two months of activity, but say that it’s worried families who tend to call rather than the businessmen themselves. 

“It’s their wives that call the most, because businessmen around here are very proud,” said Stefano Zanatta, president of Confartigianato Veneto, a local business association. “They wouldn’t admit to having a problem until it becomes so big they can’t tackle it anymore.”

Some, however, do call. “Once we got a call from a businessman who couldn’t even afford to send his daughter to school,” Zanatta said. “We offer them psychological support and financial advice before it’s too late.” 

Zanatta says that he expected a dramatic hike in the number of calls during the month of June. That’s the deadline for filing tax returns in Italy, and the time when many businessmen may realize they just can’t survive the economic crisis.  

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ROME – Among the many derogatory nicknames Silvio Berlusconi’s detractors came up, one was "Burlesconi," a way to emphasize his propensity for gaffes and tendency to adopt sexist and inappropriate humor.

But as usually happens with the flamboyant former Italian prime minister, truth is stranger than fiction.

On Friday Berlusconi, 75, made a rare appearance at the trial in which he stands accused of having sex with an under-aged prostitute known as “Ruby the Heart-Stealer” during one of his now infamous “Bunga Bunga” parties, sex-fueled revelries that allegedly took place at his private residence in Milan.

And suddenly, burlesque had a lot more to do with him than his detractors could have ever dreamed of. 

While the trial officially started at the end of last year, it has already offered a fly-on-the-wall peek into Berlusconi’s scandalous private life, with lurid details revealing an impressive partying lifestyle that would be trying for a man a third his age.

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On Monday Imane Fadil, one of the models who was invited to Berlusconi’s “elegant dinners,” as he called them, testified in court. She said that she personally saw women dressed as nuns don their habits and crucifixes before they jumped on a pole where they performed some very unholy dance moves.

Another model, Fadil said, wore a mask of Ronaldinho, a famous soccer player from AC Milan, the Italian team owned by Berlusconi, before she kicked off her skirt down to her G-string.

Witness: Italian ex-PM Berlusconi hosted strippers dressed as nuns

Gifts from Gadhafi
On Friday, the former prime minister, and currently still the leader of the biggest political coalition in the Italian lower house of parliament, clarified once and for all some of what happened.

Speaking to journalists in Milan's High Court after the hearing, Berlusconi described what he saw in detail. "I remember seeing a woman dressed as a policeman, one as a nurse and another one as Father Christmas ... those were dresses that I received as presents from Gadhafi," Berlusconi said. (See a video published on the website of Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper. He's speaking in Italian).

"[Gadhafi] gave them to me when I went to Tripoli for an expo on Libya's fashion. I saw those dresses and told him I liked them, so he sent them to me," he said.

A little later, he again spoke with journalists, this time outside the courtroom in Milan. “They were dressed up, some as policemen, but it was only a burlesque contest.” 

He insisted that the girls were guests of innocent dinners dominated by an atmosphere of joy, serenity and conviviality.

“Sometimes,” he specified, “the girls would follow me to the house theater room,” a room formerly used by his sons as a private discotheque.

“Women are exhibitionists by nature,” Berlusconi said. “And if they work in show business, they are even more exhibitionists. They like putting up shows and they decided to compete in a burlesque show.”

When asked if he was a judge of the show, he replied: “No, but I watched with interest. I had a lot of fun, and will continue to have fun.”

(See video of Berlusconi’s comments to journalists outside the courtroom. He’s speaking in Italian).

And there is the irony of it all.

While the admission by any current or former prime minister of a European country that they held a burlesque contest with half-naked women dressed as nuns and policemen would be enough to end their political career shamefully, Berlusconi seems somehow different. His list of alleged felonies, including sex scandals, tax frauds and abuse of office, has now become so long that confessing to organizing a strippers competition, at the end of the day, seems not so bad.

The trial continues, and with more revelations expected from witnesses, the former prime minister’s private life will soon be stripped naked. Nothing more appropriate, for a man dubbed Burlesconi.

By Claudio Lavanga, NBC News producer

ROME — Saturday could be the last day of Silvio Berlusconi's time as prime minister of Italy, and the first day of the rest of his life as one of the richest retirees on earth — or a convict.

On paper, the 74-year-old Berlusconi could retire gracefully. As a businessman, he has amassed a multi-billion-dollar fortune through his television, editorial and property empires, and he is spoiled for choice for his retirement home.

He could move back to his beloved Villa San Martino, a former monastery turned into lavish residence in the outskirts of Milan, and escape the harsh winters of the northern Italian city by relaxing in the stunning Villa Certosa, his summer residence on the island of Sardinia.

There, he could spend days admiring nature, the fireworks from the fake volcano he had built in his gardens to entertain his guests, and finally indulge in the presence of the many topless women who were photographed at the villa during his premiership — without having to apologize for it.

But Silvio Berlusconi is not a man who likes to rest. He admits he doesn’t sleep longer than three hours a night, and in the past two decades he has proved he possesses an enviable stamina for a man his age.

Should he feel restless, he could always watch a game of his beloved A.C. Milan, the top Italian soccer team he owns, or organize one of his infamous 'bunga bunga' parties, allegedly his favorite after-dinner pastime, without worrying about the public sentiment over it.

But there is another, less pleasant alternative: He could spend the rest of his life in prison.

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'Ruby the heart-stealer'
Berlusconi is still a defendant in three different trials. He is being charged with corruption, abuse of office, and famously for having slept with a 17-year old prostitute dubbed “Ruby the heart-stealer.”

Should he be found guilty of all charges, he could potentially spend more than 15 years in prison, and say goodbye to 'bunga bunga'.

And yet Berlusconi might not be losing any of those three hours of sleep over it.

While in office, his government lowered the statute of limitations, effectively the expiration date for legal proceedings, prompting suspicions that it was yet another attempt to save himself from his legal woes. And it might have worked.

One of the most damaging accusations, that of having bribed British tax lawyer David Mills to lie under oath in two previous corruption trials against him, will fall under the new statute of limitations in January 2012, potentially sparing Berlusconi the embarrassment and prison term that would come with a guilty verdict.

Another case — in which he and other executives are accused of buying U.S. movie rights at inflated prices via two offshore companies under his control — will expire in 2014, which is probably too soon for the famously slow legal Italian system to prove his guilt.

Another masterstroke by Berlusconi during his time in office was the attempt in 2010 to introduce a law that granted immunity to top government officials, including himself.

That law was overturned by Italy’s constitutional court in 2011, but it still bought some precious time for the embattled premier.

Too busy for court
So what will change from Saturday, when he is expected to step down?

His biggest problem will be trying to delay further trial proceeding by using the last card in his hand: Claiming he was too busy with institutional commitments to attend court hearings, the famous “legitimate impediment.”

This will no doubt speed up the three trials that he has so far managed to dodge.

And yet, rather than worrying about his own future, Berlusconi has proved that in the last few days in parliament that he is worried more about his sons and daughters.

He introduced in one bill, which was drawn to tackle Italy’s economic crisis, a new inheritance law that allows him to choose how to spread his wealth after his death.

He is believed to want to favor the offspring of his first marriage over the sons and daughters he had with his estranged second wife, Veronica Lario, who left him in 2009 claiming she could “no longer be with a man who consorts with minors.”

It is a worthy final act for a prime minister who has been accused throughout his career of caring more about his interests than those of the nation.

It is believed that while Rome burned, the emperor Nero played a string instrument called a Lyre. In the case of the colorful Silvio Berlusconi, most Italians feel they were played by him while they watched their country fall into ruin.

By Claudio Lavanga, NBC News Producer

ROME – “Sic transit gloria mundi” is a Latin phrase that means "Thus passes the glory of the world.”
 
It is the phrase Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi used to describe the death of Col. Moammar Gadhafi, the late Libyan leader who once was a personal friend and political ally.  
 
Ironically, Italians are now using this Latinism on social networks like Twitter and Facebook to wave Berlusconi goodbye a day after he announced he will resign once both houses of parliament approve financial reforms.
 
It is a final epitaph for a prime minister whose government has been dead in the water for months. 
 
Italians woke up on Wednesday morning to the real prospect that, after 17 years, the curtain may finally go down on Berlusconi’s political roadshow. And they had plenty of opinions on his allegedly imminent exit. 

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'Champagne is in the fridge'
"It's too late. He waited too long and still he is not gone yet. He is taking his time to figure out how to play one of his tricks, like passing a few more laws to protect him from his legal problems,” said Eleonora Torchia, an unemployed teacher.

“The champagne is in the fridge, but we'll wait for the day he goes for real before we open it,” Torchia added.
 
She, as others, suspected the prime minister, who has broken his promises in the past, is just buying time to pave the way for the future of his party and will go on his own terms.

"I don't believe he will leave. He is too attached to his throne. I'll believe it when I see it,” said
Cristian Maceri, another Roman.

Tana de Zulueta, a journalist and a former member of the Italian parliament, was also extremely doubtful that Berlusconi was truly motivated to do what was best for the country.

“He is just buying time in the relentless drive to take care of his businesses before he goes. He wants to stuff the reforms with laws that would help his companies and himself and make sure that one of his men becomes prime minister next,” said Zulueta. “The markets have seen this clearly, they don't believe he's going to go anytime soon."

The world markets did tumble in early trading on Wednesday amid fears that Italy’s debt woes could push Europe’s third largest economy to the brink. 
 
Others didn’t waste time to post sarcastic depictions of the prime minister online, such as the poster of “Dimission Impossible,” in which Berlusconi’s face is placed over Tom Cruise’s in a classic Mission Impossible movie pose.
 
Even Berlusconi would find this funny and appropriate, because there is no doubt that his was an action-packed political career, and he has always liked to be seen as some sort of hero that would carry Italy into the next century.  
 
Instead, Italy is quickly heading back to the dark ages of economic instability, and his star power is fading quicker than Arnold Schwarzenegger when it became clear that he was better at fighting indestructible robots than California’s economic downfalls.

Time up
“The show is over,” a receptionist at the Albergo Nazionale Hotel next to the Lower House of Parliament said on Wednesday. And his might be much more than a metaphor.
 
Berlusconi has been without a doubt the ultimate showman of Italian politics. He managed to use his flamboyant personality to convince millions of Italians that he was one of them: A self-made man with no shame to admit a taste for beautiful women, funny jokes and a disregard for the law.  
 
Among the many nicknames he was given, one was “The Great Communicator,” and for a good reason. He managed to turn from a rich businessman into prime minister in a matter of months, by using his private television network and editorial empire to promote his candidacy and his political ideas.
 
Looking back at one of his first political TV ads back in 1994 one can see why Italians were taken by him. He was the image of a polished politician – complete with a reassuring aura created by professional lighting technicians and a white smile that could have been used for a toothpaste advertisement – he looked straight at them, in the comfort of their own houses.

Compared to the boring, dusty image of “same old, same old” politicians, his image at the time was an instant winner. That kept him in power for 17 long years.
 
Berlusconi’s remarkable story is now in the closing credits. But they will last at least a few days if not weeks because just like every other silver screen hero, Berlusconi won’t go down without one last fight.

By NBC News’ Claudio Lavanga

ROME – Just as the ancient Roman senators turned against the Emperor Caesar on the eve of his assassination in 44 B.C., Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi seems to be heading for a similar, yet bloodless, backstabbing in his own government that could lead to a swift downfall of his political empire.

Under pressure from European leaders tired of hearing empty promises, thousands of Italians protesting (sometimes violently) against his austerity measures, a fierce political opposition looking for a chance to make a fatal blow and the voiced concerns of Italy’s President Giorgio Napolitano over his ability to pass reforms, an embattled Berlusconi is quickly being abandoned by his allies.

On Thursday, two members of Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party left his ranks to join the opposition. Four more asked him to resign for the sake of Italy’s future, after he has appeared incapable of introducing reforms aimed at calming market speculation, reducing the budget deficit, kick-starting growth and fixing Italy’s enormous sovereign debt.

With a razor-thin majority in the lower house of parliament, every parliamentarian’s vote counts.

Six of them could mean survival or defeat for Berlusconi.

Given Berlusconi’s political survival skills, it’s impossible to predict what might happen.

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"You would need a crystal ball to figure out what's coming next,” said Giovanni Orsina, a political analyst and professor of European studies at Luiss Guido Carli University in Rome, during a phone interview with NBC on Friday. “But the impression is talking about Berlusconi is like talking about a terminally ill patient. You don't know how long he's got: One day, one week, even one month maybe.”

Orsina pointed out the Berlusconi is so unpopular now, he can’t rely on his old supporters. “One thing seems to be certain: Every time parliament will be called to vote, could be the last day for Berlusconi as prime minister. Because his majority is so reduced, now he has no guarantees."

More of the usual political merry-go-round?
And yet this could just be the latest round of blackmailing that opposition leaders like Antonio Di Pietro, founder of the Italy of Values party, say has become a regular part of daily Italian politics. He and other members of the opposition accuse Berlusconi of repaying the support of disgruntled members of his governing coalition with promotions, funds and favors.

“The selling, buying and blackmailing of politicians is part of a criminal plan that Berlusconi is using to preserve the majority in parliament,” Di Pietro said in October. “It’s like being in a pigsty, where parliamentarians don’t answer to the electorate anymore, and instead they sell their vote to the highest bidder.”

But it’s impossible to know whether the “rebels” among Berlusconi’s allies are trying to save Italy or themselves. When approached by a journalist on Thursday evening, one of the four remaining would-be defectors, Giorgio Straquadanio, threatened him verbally and later smashed the cameraman’s spotlight on the pavement.

The doling out of political favors by the government is one of the many problems that have prevented Italy’s lower house of parliament from reaching the standards of stability, seriousness and political honesty seen elsewhere in Europe.

Italy’s democracy is relatively new. Since it became a parliamentarian republic in 1946, Italy’s political system has been a merry-go-round of politicians who have gravitated in and around parliament, swapping seats but never leaving the carousel. This has created a stagnant political culture in which elected parliamentarians stop answering to the electorate the moment they step into one of the two houses of parliament, where they often use their voting power as a token that can be traded to buy their way into privileges and more power.

The fragmented party system hasn’t helped create order either. Small parties are born almost  daily, usually founded by spin-off politicians who want to grab a piece of the political limelight, only to be engulfed by one of the two ruling coalitions, the center-left and the center-right.

Although the political scene is dominated by the center-right People of Freedom Party and the center-left Democratic Party, the Italian parliament is a galaxy of raising and falling political stars that threaten the equilibrium of the whole political system.   

The latest political stars, the four members of the coalition who have threatened to defect, could well lead Berlusconi into a black hole he will never be able to re-emerge from.

Just one vote could spell the end
At the last vote of confidence, one of many the prime minister has had to endure since he was re-elected in 2008, he won with 316 votes. That’s the exact number he needs to hold an absolute majority in Parliament, meaning that even one vote, one single backstabber, one disgruntled sniper, could bring him down the next time he is called to convince the parliament, as well as millions of Italians and worried European leaders, that he still has the numbers to get his tough austerity measures approved.

That day will come soon. He has already announced that he will ask for yet another vote of confidence sometimes in the middle of November.

Even for a master businessman and negotiator like Berlusconi, there might be not enough time to strike deals with the defecting ranks among his coalition partners.

Knives are already out. The die might be cast already. 

By Claudio Lavanga, NBC News Producer

PERUGIA, Italy – When a crowd of locals gathered in front of the court of appeals in Perugia on Monday evening, many journalists thought they were just curious residents there to witness the end of an appeal trial that, to some, had become a nuisance that disturbed the town’s idyllic peace.
 
But as soon as it became clear that the appeals court had overturned Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito’s murder convictions, there were cries of “Shame, Shame,” from a vocal few. The Knox family was whisked away by security.
 
For some in Perugia, the mood had changed overnight.

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During the two weeks leading to the final verdict, journalists scouted endlessly for local opinion on the trial. With a city center about the size of Times Square, they ended up interviewing the same people twice, and sometimes, out of desperation, they turned the microphone on each other.  
 
The answer they would get from residents, in many cases, was one of resigned indifference. To them, the case was closed in 2009, when Knox and Sollecito were found guilty of all charges.

Perugia went back to being the quiet, medieval enclave where students partied until the wee hours of the morning on the city’s cobblestoned alleyways.  
 
Many residents were prepared for a slight correction to the sentence. A few years off here and there, perhaps. But they did not believe that Knox and Sollecito would be acquitted.

“It’s unbelievable,” a newspaper salesperson on Corso Vannucci said this morning while handing out papers – many of which sported front-page headlines that simply read: “INNOCENTS.”

Another local, Mario, who only gave his first name, approached our NBC News crew while we were filming in the city center Tuesday to offer up his opinion. “It’s outrageous. If she was tried in the United States with the same evidence, she would have been given a death sentence.”

Others here disagree. Amoi Amici, a bartender at a cafe across the square from the court of appeals, said, "I'm happy because I really believe they are innocent. They had nothing to do with it." 

The mood towards the media here was not so mixed. “What are you still doing here?” a well-dressed woman shouted at our NBC crew as we sat down for dinner at a local restaurant Tuesday. “Isn’t your job done?”
 
She, like some others around here, blame the American media for what they say was a pro-Knox campaign that influenced the jury’s decision.

One man on a Harley Davidson driving past the few TV camera positions left in front of the court house Tuesday slowed down and shouted: “GO AWAY!"

They will.

Crews from around the world are in the process of dismantling the media circus that turned this sleepy town into the center of the world, even if only for one day.
 
When the lights are off and the cameras gone, it will go back to being the secluded medieval fortress perched on a hill that will guard, maybe forever, the secret of what exactly happened to Meredith Kercher in the middle of the night on Nov. 1, 2007.  

By Claudio Lavanga, NBC News Producer
 
PERUGIA, Italy – To journalists, a seat in Perugia’s appeals court for Thursday’s pleading by Knox’s defense team, and especially for this weekend’s verdict, is the hottest ticket in town.

At least 370 journalists from all over the world asked for accreditation. About a third of them have already crammed the small room in the basement of the local court in the heart of the city center for the past week. How the others will make their way in, it’s anyone’s guess.
 
Of course, there’s always the press room upstairs. But it’s so small it could soon be deemed a health and safety hazard. With so many people heading this way, a stampede is a likely scenario. Even for journalists, who are used to walking over each other’s bodies to get the perfect shot, it could prove to be dangerous.
 
The last act of the trial, which should decide whether American student Amanda Knox and her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito walk free or spend their lives in prison for the murder of Meredith Kercher, is proving a suited finale for a drama that has gripped journalists, locals  and the worldwide audience alike.

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The setting couldn’t be any more appropriate for the dramatic trial to unfold: Perugia is a medieval jewel perched on top of a hill with breathtaking vistas over the rolling countryside of Umbria, a region in central Italy famous for its wine, truffles and for the past four year, a trial that has divided the nation and the world.

Is Amanda Knox really a “she-devil,” as she was recently called by prosecutors who say she killed her former housemate Meredith Kercher, a “Venus in Furs” who enslaved her young Italian lover into participating in the crime? Or just a “Jessica Rabbit,” as a defense lawyer called her, who “is not bad, but was just drawn that way”?

The question has been on every journalist’s mouth. Along with the taste of cappuccinos and truffles, that is.
 
Cramming the outdoor tables of cafes and restaurants, journalists have turned the center of Perugia into an open-air court. They animatedly debate court proceedings, DNA findings and the reliability of the body of evidence in such detail that by now many of them they might have enough legal expertise to apply for a job as a forensic scientist or a defense lawyer.
 
It’s difficult to blame them for their obsession, because wherever you are in Perugia, you don’t seem to be more than a few meters away from the murder case.

For instance, while eating a recent meal on a restaurant terrace overlooking Perugia’s rolling hills, word came out that one of the cooks was a Bangladeshi immigrant renting the room in Via della Pergola where Kercher was killed. On a separate night, while sitting at a bar sipping grappa, a street seller offering roses turned out to be another housemate in the “house of horrors.” 

So much for the house owner’s recent claim that she is suing for 100,000 euro in damages for the loss in value of Knox and Kercher’s former apartment and the difficulties in renting it out. Even if it’s unclear who exactly she would sue, it seems, instead, that every other person in Perugia lives in Via della Pergola number 7.  

The journalist’s camp is divided: on one side, most foreign journalists believe Knox is a victim of a flawed Italian justice system that turned the murder trial into a witch hunt. On the opposite side, mainly Italian journalists don’t believe in Knox’s innocence.

This is Italy, after all, and “drug-fueled sex orgies gone wrong,” as a local journalist pointed out, have been part of everyday life since the days of the Roman Empire.
 
But don’t blame the journalists for the sensationalism surrounding this trial.
 
The prosecutors and defense lawyers alike took turns in providing comical moments that turned the trial into a show worth paying for.

In one of her best performances so far, Manuela Comodi, one of the prosecutors, pulled out a new bra in front of the judges and jury to show them how Kercher’s bra was ripped by her assailant. The price tag from Intimissimi, a nearby lingerie shop, was still hanging off it, and one of the shop’s bags was on the prosecution’s desk.

One has to wonder is Intimissimi will follow Abercrombie & Fitch’s and Lacoste’s examples. The first offered to pay Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino not to wear their brand for fear of damaging its image. And Lacoste recently pleaded with Norway’s police to stop mass murderer Anders Behring Brievik from wearing their clothes.

Given the increasing fictionalization of characters involved in this trial and the dramatic plot getting richer by the day, this trial might soon be in need of a sponsor.

By NBC News’ Claudio Lavanga  
The start of the debate in the Italian Senate over Berlusconi’s new austerity budget on Wednesday was always meant to be a predictable affair. In fact, it barely made the news – even in Italy. 

The $65 billion plan, scrapped together by a struggling Italian government in a desperate bid to balance the budget by 2013, is pivotal to the very future and stability not only of Italy but of Europe as a whole. The mix of tax increases and spending cuts was announced last week to satisfy the European Central Bank’s demands that Italy do something to correct it’s strained public finances.

So Italians are asking, why did only 11 out of 315 senators show up to discuss the measure on Wednesday evening? And why do just 0.016 percent of the proposed budget cuts apply to the political class itself?  
 
Attendance was not mandatory, but the en-masse absenteeism is viewed as a direct insult to the Italians who will bear the brunt of the new austerity measures forced upon them by the very politicians who dared not to show up to discuss the measures.

(You don't have to understand Italian to get this fun tour of the empty Senate the day before the debate from Corriere della Sera. "Tutto chiuso" says it all).

The empty senate chamber could be seen as a symbol of what’s wrong with the country, and cast some serious doubts over its chances of finding a political solution to an economic crisis that is threatening the existence of the euro and the stability of stock markets worldwide.

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Summer time truancy
So what happened to the remaining 300-odd senators missing in action?

It is reasonable to suspect that most of them are still on vacation. It is the middle of August, a time when most of the country hits the beach; parliament, among other institutions, closes down for the summer.

There are surely plenty of excuses that might be offered up when the absent politicians roll back to town. Some might claim to have been on holiday at the Seychelles, and were so terrified by the shark that killed the honeymooner they could barely move. Others could claim to have taken an academic break in London, and to have fallen victim of the rioters who stole their plane ticket. A few could get away with one of the summer truancy classics: a bad sunburn, a nasty stingray sting, a water skiing accident.

Even though Wednesday was just the start of the debate over the plan and the vote will come later, very few, if any, will admit that they simply couldn’t be bothered to leave the beach even for a day to perform their duty in one of the most difficult economic times the country is facing since the Second World War.     

(Here is more video of the empty chamber "un Senato deserto").

Highest paid politicians in Europe
This attitude is symbolic of a privileged political class that has lost touch with its electorate and spends most of its time enjoying the benefit of being an Italian politician, without acting like one.

The numbers speak for themselves: At $20,000 per month, Italian members of parliament are the highest paid in Europe.

They earn twice as much as German politicians, to choose just one nearby country. In addition, they enjoy a long list of benefits from free, unlimited flights in business class within Italy to the use of state cars to a fine restaurant in the house of parliament that serves succulent beef steak for a mere 2 euros.  

The overall Italian political system, including parliamentarians salaries, benefits and expenses, costs $33 billion a year, according to the country’s main financial paper Il Sole 24 Ore.
 
The cost to the country, if politicians continue to act as spoilt and pampered upper-class with no sense of responsibility, could be much, much higher.