THE POLITICS of Italy have long been trapped in a cycle of rancid interaction between judges and prosecutors on the one hand and conservative politicians on the other. It dates from at least 1994, when the then-prime minister, the late Silvio Berlusconi, was served with a subpoena while hosting a conference in Naples on organised crime. Berlusconi and his outraged supporters claimed he was a victim of politically motivated jurists—and repeated that claim ad nauseam over the years that followed.