Now more attacks on the magistracy and bespoke laws to protect himself and his business interests seem to be priorities once again.On June 17th Renato Schifani, speaker of the Senate, read a letter from Mr Berlusconi backing an amendment proposed by two senators that would stop for a year all trials for crimes committed before June 2002, except for those the government deems most serious.
Her prosecution is a boost for the DNA, which is slowly convincing observers of progress in tackling corruption.The DNA's chief prosecutor, Laura Codruta Kovesi, a basketball star in her teens, rose through the magistracy before getting the top job in April 2013.
Yet this did not herald a new, more cordial relationship with the magistracy.
On a knife-edge Not quite so keen ReprintsNight shifts at his father's petrol pump helped him pay for university, and so to the tough competitive exams that led to the magistracy.
On September 18th, the day a commission of the Senate, to which he was elected in February, took a step towards his expulsion, he bashed the magistracy and the centre-left Democratic Party PDD) in a recorded television message lasting 15 minutes.
And several members of the magistracy spoke about their works, among them Roberto Scarpinato, who prosecuted Giulio Andreotti in a case that showed that the seven-time prime minister had had ties to Cosa Nostra.
Last October, the prosecutor asked that, if found guilty, Mr Previti be sentenced to 13 years in jail.The supreme court's decision is likely to rouse the government to further attacks on the magistracy.
But guess what: Mr Berlusconi has scuppered an 18-month-long attempt at constitutional reform, largely because he was thwarted in his desire to cut the magistracy down to size.
It was a misuse of language, Lord Justice Brown said,to describe the magistrates' campaign as being for "political ends", or their approach to Mr Berlusconi as one of political persecution...the magistracy are demonstrating...an even-handedness in dealing equally with the politicians of all political parties.
The most recent episode involved the superior council of magistracy, the institution that guarantees the independence of the judiciary.
In the country in general, the Audit says, a big increase in the number of quangos created a new magistracy of unelected people, running a new system of local administration which has stripped local government of powers and services.
