It's the scale, man. The sheer scale of it.
Average corrupt politicians have a mistress, or two, or three; he has a harem of a couple dozen, several of which minors. The average corrupt politician casts his shadow on the media; he owns the media. He has brought the concept of "conflict of interest" to a whole new level.
The sheer scale of it. Average corrupt politicians have a mistress, or two, or three; he has a harem of a couple dozen, several of which minors.
The allegation that some are minors is distasteful, but the fact that he sleeps with more women than you feel comfortable with is neither here nor there when talking about how he "ruined a country".
It's depressing to see The Economist's article open by talking about his sex life. It's utterly immaterial.
His grip on the media, his lack of reforms, his policies on this that and the other, his changing the law to avoid prosecution for fraud allegation - those things matter to the story of how he "ruined Italy"; how many people he sleeps with and how righteously outraged Americans are by it? Doesn't matter.
Multiple sexual partners aren't the issue. When one uses the term "harem" it paints a different picture - the casual disregard for half the human race. Perhaps that contributes to "The female-participation rate in the workforce is 46%, the lowest in western Europe."
I'm loathe to use "litmus test" type analogies, but I believe this behavior is telling.
As you say, the real problems are the grip on the media and his deep rooted dishonesty; but the harem thing does help to paint the picture.
I mean, we're not just talking multiple sexual partners here, we're talking about renting a whole housing complex to lodge dozens of sexual partners, alongside financing a fully blown recruiting organisation, on a national scale, in order to sustain a healthy flow of fresh partners coming in; again it might not be the main problem, but it gives you an idea of the scale... plus, one wonders what share of mind might be left in the man towards actually administering the country.
For example, when charged with tax fraud and false accounting, he changed the law to reduce the statute of limitations. The changes made the cases too old so he effectively acquitted himself. Also, tried to pass another law to give himself complete immunity from any prosecution while in office.
