“The notion of the strongman as both savior and victim —the leader as a man of the people and a man above all other men— surrounds depraved and corrupt individuals with an aura of holiness. "I am the Jesus Christ of Italian politics," Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi liked to say as he navigated dozens of corruption trials and over twenty indictments with the help of his "right-hand man" Marcello Dell'Utri, a Senator from his party and his link to both the Mafia and Opus Dei.”