Berlusconi Feared Bono ‘Tongue-Lashing’

One of the more amusing stories among the recent raft from WikiLeaks reveals that in 2008 Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi considered upping his country’s foreign aid budget to avoid a “tongue-lashing” from U2 frontman Bono.

The website that claims to publish anonymous submissions and leaks of otherwise unavailable documents says a confidential U.S. diplomatic cable shows Berlusconi feared a confrontation similar to the one he experienced in 2006, when Bono accused the Italian premier of “exploiting” his image in the run-up to the country’s elections.

The U2 frontman had appeared in a brochure sent to Italian homes in which it was claimed that Bono, who has long worked to eradicate world poverty, was “grateful” for Italy’s actions to help the world’s poor.

In an open letter, Bono hit back and said that Italy would have to do more than double its aid by 2010 to meet a personal commitment Berlusconi made to the singer to cancel the debts of poor countries to Italy.

The leaked memo from William Meara, the economic adviser at the American embassy in Rome, said that despite budget cuts and “with its 2009 G8 presidency looming,” Italy’s then newly installed, centre-right government may decide to maintain funding levels to Africa simply to avoid “an embarrassing tongue-lashing from Bono et al.”

The confidential 2008 cable reveals how badly Berlusconi wanted to avoid losing face. It details a meeting between Meara and Fabrizio Nava, director of the office of sub-Saharan Africa assistance for the Italian government.

It reveals that after Meara brought up criticism voiced by NGOs such as Bono’s Debt AIDS Trade Africa and Action Aid Italy that Italy’s aid apparatus is out of date and overly focused on infrastructure projects, Nava said he expected African assistance would be a focus during Italy’s G8 presidency.

Berlusconi’s attempts to avoid a further high-profile and embarrassing confrontation with the singer, as revealed in the leaked memo, were doomed to failure.

In 2009, the year in which it hosted a G8 summit in the earthquake-hit city of L’Aquila, Italy’s overseas development aid to sub-Saharan Africa fell by euro 238 million.

Bono and Bob Geldof launched an irreverent online game with a cartoon character of Berlusconi being hurled into the air by a hammer thrower.

“We all love a bit of fun,” the site explained. “But there’s a serious point to the game – since promising to increase aid to Africa in 2005 PM Berlusconi has actually cut it.

“One man alone has done nothing. In fact Berlusconi is doing even less now than he was five years ago,” the site said.

It recommended Berlusconi should be thrown out by the G8.