New paper declares open season on Silvio

Never mind the pan-European newspaper crisis: Italy has a new daily, resolved to earn its crust on a constant diet of Berlusconi-bashing. The offspring of 30.000 subscriptions collected on the reputation of its instigators alone, newborn Il Fatto Quotidiano is headed by firebrand journalist Marco Travaglio, known for his investigations into the sins of Italy’s great and good, and also for his sharp-tongued blog.

In his inaugural leader, editor-in-chief Antonio Padellaro declares that the paper's editorial line will be "the Italian constitution". Being a "newspaper of opposition" won't necessarily mean siding with opposition parties: certainly not with the Democratic Party (PD) and the "puttylike left", which has proved unable to scupper properly the Berlusconi ship. Perhaps not even with former prosecutor Antonio Di Pietro's Italia dei Valori (Italy of Values), with whom many imagine the daily is close. The only fixed objective will be the daily flogging of the Cavaliere and his minions. Travaglio sets the pace in his first comment about the trial of former French PM Dominique De Villepin who is alleged to have smeared his rival Sarkozy. Had he learned a trick or two from Silvio, Travaglio quips, the "red togas" (a derogatory Berlusconi term to designate the judiciary) would never have dared go so far.