Silvio’s Best Hits

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy lost a squeaker of an election last week to Romano Prodi. The defeat ends the conservative Berlusconi’s five-year rule–Italy’s longest since World War II–which was peppered with his offhand, sometimes offensive remarks. Here’s a look at some of the most memorable.

ON HIS GOVERNMENT

“We have worked a lot. Only Napoleon did more than me–but I am certainly taller than him.”

ON HIS LEADERSHIP STYLE

“I am the Jesus Christ of politics. I am a patient victim, I put up with everyone, I sacrifice myself for everyone.”

ON THE ITALIAN JUDICIARY

“Those judges are doubly mad! In the first place, because they are politically mad, and in the second place, because they are mad anyway.”

ON ITALY’S FASCIST DICTATOR BENITO MUSSOLINI

“Mussolini never killed anyone … [he] used to send people on vacation in internal exile.”

ON THE PERKS OF INVESTING IN ITALY

“Italy is now a great country to invest in … Today we have fewer communists, and those who are still there deny having been one. Another reason to invest in Italy is that we have beautiful secretaries … superb girls.”