Sure, no country is pure. Man is what he is. But as far as I know no parliament in the world houses as many criminals and mafiosi as does the Italian parliament and its government. And no European leader (except for Putin) uses democracy as a personal tool. In Italy, Berlusconi does. He uses it and abuses it. In your face! And why does he get away with it? Money and power. Money buys him hacks ready and willing to smear and ruin the families of his political opponents. Power rewards his henchmen with plum jobs in government. Just a sample: give you an idea of what kind of people the Prime Minister hires to do his scum-bag work. Feltri, attack-dog, editor of one of Berlusconi's papers, ruined the career and family life of an editor of a national catholic daily by revealing his sexual preferences. Yea, he was gay. His sin? He criticized the Prime Minister. And the same attack-dog, splashed front page old photos of his wife bare-breasted. Her sin? She wants divorce him for infidelity. She said he hung around with a seventeen year-old girl.

Last night, another Berlusconi attack-dog was on Annozero, Belpietro. He is also an editor. He was on the show defending the indefensible - a law designed to get the Prime Minister off the hook from going to jail. It goes like this: one of Berlusconi's accountants, Mills, was paid 600.000 euros to bullshit the judge about Silvio's offshore accounts. Well, Mills got caught falsely testifying. He was tried and found guilty. Now he is a corrupted accountant. And obviously that makes Berlusconi a corruptor. So, Berlusconi has to go in front of a judge and be judged. Chances are he will be found guilty. Unless, of course, he makes a law allowing him to walk away from the trial. And that's what he did. He passed a law through parliament saying a trial must be done and over within two years. If it's not, everybody goes home and nobody goes to jail. You can bet your bottom dollar Berlusconi's trial won't be finished in two years. That was the topic of the discussion last night. One side argued that shorter trials (as it is they last six years) are critical for justice to work, but not at the expense of justice. Makes sense to me. But not to Belpietro. He argued that the judges are lazy and the reason trials last a long time is that they (the judges) are biased against Berlusconi and that shorter trials are necessary to speed up the excessive case loads. Yeah, right, but again, not at the expense of justice. Belpietro seemed to have a hard time with this concept. It was also argued that the courts lacked human resources and technical means to fast-track trials. They compared the law with a veterinarian trying to heal a dog's stomach by chopping his tail. In any event, Belpietro went on statistical rant showing that the courts have the means necessary to try people within the two-year time frame. I don't know, Mark Twain thinks that there three types of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics.

Ci vogliono ancora leggi piu forti per chi vuole quidare,
alla guida niente alcol niente droge ecc.,

On the other hand, see my previous comment, it might be the influence of all the Immigrant Moslems whom we wish to encourage and made to feel comfortable, even by removing our crucifixes from our walls, by making our Laws more akin to Sharia Law. Also remember that our beloved Berlusconi, feeling unwanted by the other western leaders, has been so taken up with goaty Gheddafi that he might even have been studying the Q'uran and hence influencing our Laws to please Gheddafi, get the Oil to flow, and why not, feel less guilty with his love of the delightful bimbe since, after all the profet encourages sex.

What can I say? If it is true, it is frightening! What about fornication with prostitutes and transmission of Venereal deseases? Perhaps there are too many motorised users in Italy, perhaps the multitude of Italian Lawyers who are exceeding the possibility of employment at Montecitorio, which is the most densily populated Parliament in the world, are causing all this severity to get employed. Perhaps the State is desperate for Revenue. However, even while considering the fines too large, I am for severity, this must start somewhere, even for the use of Castor oil as in the days of blessed Fascism, for the greater glory of Italy! Let us all be neo-Romans, stoic and unflinching in front of duty and good behaviour! Alleluja!

What drink&driving fines have to do with the B scandal politcs factor? Nothing.

This is like complaining about being caught stealing while other thieves got off the hook.

Do get those drinking & driving in prison. They are irresponible people who put other people's life at risk.

Comparing drink&drivers to the scandals in Italian politic will not make me sympathetic with drink&drivers.

The application of the law is neither the same across Italy nor clear. And not all police officers are so narrow minded (like in this case).
One year ago a friend of mine had a similar experience near Rieti (about 100 Km from Rome), but with a totally different outcome.
The policemen found that he was marginally out of the alchool limits (like in this case) but they decided to repeat the test after half an hour 'to be more shure'. They apparently knew that when you are marginally out of the limits (liqueur chocolate case) it takes only some tens minutes for your liver to recover more acceptable alchool values. As a matter of fact, when they repeated the test later on, everything was acceptable, no problem.
In all cases, when you are found out of the limits, you can ask to the policemen to be accompanied to an hospital for regular blood testing.
If you are only marginally out the limits (normal case) there is sufficient time for your liver to recover normal values before actual blood testing (and you legally escape all the mentioned problems).
However if you are found positive to regular blood testing your situation suddenly worsens....