The right-wing conspiracy theory turns what should be a weakness into a strength: the more the prime minister is prosecuted, the more he seems persecuted. Large numbers of Italians now believe he is. That is the real tragedy of Mr Berlusconi’s storm-tossed venture into politics. Many Italians now doubt the good faith of an institution, the judiciary, whose impartiality is essential to a functioning democracy. Mr Berlusconi said after the court decision that he could “not but respect it”, but he also called his trials “real farces” and promised to prove the magistrates were all “liars”. And he hinted that his next goal might be to change the court’s composition so that it did not upset “the correct balance between the powers of the state”. Such talk is reckless, even dangerous.Silvio Berlusconi's troubles: Justice can be ever so inconvenient | The Economist