Even if Berlusconi leaves the soon, he will leave behind a toxic legacy. Italy has never had a puritanical culture, but under the influence of Berlusconi's media, the country has become positively shameless. Italy once had a thriving feminist movement. But instead of moving to the near equality that women now enjoy in the rest of Western Europe, in Italy the process stopped — or rather, was pushed off course. There are certainly underlying sociological causes — not least, the influence of the Roman Catholic Church -- but the crass populism of Berlusconi's TV programming played an undeniably large role.

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