PHONKMEISTER

NOT since Silvio Berlusconi’s erstwhile political sponsor, Bettino Craxi, fled to Tunisia to avoid being jailed for corruption, has an Italian prime minister left office in such humiliated fashion. Last night, after finally resigning, Mr Berlusconi slipped out of a side door of the president’s palace to dodge a raucous mob. The media and property magnate ended his fourth government, and very probably his career in politics, to cries of “buffoon”, “Mafioso” and “face trial”.

—The end of Berlusconi: Hallelujah | The Economist