Unlike many right-wing populists today, Belerskonya exuded optimism and a sunny view of life. That kind of popularity gave him a sense of invulnerability which led into the sex scandals in the late 2000s. He always had his critics, including journalists who asked questions about his connections with organized crime.
Italy’s longest-serving prime minister has died aged 86. He inspired as much derision as devotion, and for all his gaffes and scandals he helped to shape the country’s media—and its economic malaise. Unfettered by the abandoned nuclear deal, Iran is now making its bomb programme unassailable. And bringing the 20th-century idea of “Smell-o-vision” into the 21st.
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