Berlusconi cancels visit to Pope

Silvio Berlusconi will not go to the Vatican after all at the end of March. He will not be part of the delegation of European MPs of the right that will be granted an audience with Benedict XVI. The announcement of the visit, sheduled for a few days before the elections, had sparked a controversy over the Vatican's interference in Italian politics. Gian Enrico Rusconi, a university professor and journalist, reflects on Berlusconi's about-face. "It is unbelievable that the Vatican's diplomats were surprised by the accusations of favoring Berlusconi. It is impossible that such a media-savvy  diplomatic body would not have considered the consequences of the publication of pictures in Italy - and across Europe - of the prime minister suspended in mid-smooch with the Supreme Pontiff, who will speak about the defence of the family, the supremacy of life and Christian Europe."

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