As for future agenda, I summon the Council of Ministers to launch ... [a] special session on constitutional reform ... to ensure that Italy may finally have a fair justice and also a justice worthy of a modern country, that without those injustices, those delays and the inefficiencies that have discouraged foreign investors for years even to come to work with us. There are inequities, inefficiencies and delays ... which has increasingly become a political counter [that] overflows from the constitutional principles and that is always less efficient [rather than] just a public service, which, instead everyone would like it to be.

Earlier this week, Berlusconi was the subject of protests [Reuters] by hundreds of thousands of women, calling for his resignation over his recent sex scandal. In January, hundreds of Italy's judges walked out of their courtrooms to protest the passage of legislation that placed strict time limits [JURIST reports] on the trial and appeals process, which would have allowed charges against Berlusconi to lapse. Italian prosecutors launched a tax inquiry [JURIST report] against Berlusconi in October for tax declarations he made in 2003 and 2004 relating to the commercial broadcast company Mediaset [corporate website, in Italian], which Berlusconi founded. The investigation is the fourth time Berlusconi has faced allegations of fraud in relation to his Mediaset company. In addition to the trial for abuse of power and underage prostitution, Berlusconi has three other pending judicial proceedings.