Silvio Berlusconi's Report Card

Silvio Berlusconi celebrated the first anniversary of his election victory on Monday to mixed reviews of his performance in office.

However one judges his first 11 months as prime minister, there can be little doubt that he has brought a new broom to Italian politics.

Just how unusual a figure he is was illustrated last Friday when he swept a group of schoolchildren into the prime ministerial palace and sat them down for a cabinet meeting. Having distributed ministerial portfolios among the seven to 10-year-olds, he got straight down to business.

Laws establishing an annual allowance of 10 kilos of sweets per child and 10 out of 10 marks for all pupils were swiftly approved. A proposal that children in rich countries should give half their Christmas presents to children in poor countries proved more contentious and Mr Berlusconi ended up by sacking his ministers en bloc and calling a halt to the meeting in time to present the children to his next guest, the Canadian prime minister, Jean Chrétien.

The cabinet room was a place where everyone loved one another, he explained to his unscheduled visitors, and did their best to ensure that everyone got what they wanted. The occasion was captured on camera and its significance was clear: life's a breeze when you have a charming showman in charge. Unfortunately for adult Italians, life is not quite so simple and real cabinet meetings, however hard the ministers try, rarely deliver what everyone wants.

Mr Berlusconi's own marks for the year are extremely high, at least by his own reckoning. He gave himself 10 out of 10 in a five-page interview published last week by the news magazine Panorama, which he owns. Taxes had come down and "190 million bureaucratic impediments" had already been swept away, he claimed.

He was aiming to create a more modern, free, just, safe and prosperous society, he explained: "A country where everyone, absolutely everyone, is allowed to keep the door open on hope." His ability to hold that door open is perhaps Mr Berlusconi's greatest political gift. An independent audit of the government's performance might be less generous, however.

Mathematics: 3/10. 190 million bureaucratic impediments is probably an exaggeration, even for Italy. When more than two million people joined a trade union march in Rome two months ago, Mr Berlusconi said there were 700,000 - the police figure - "and not a person more". He also suggested, ungenerously, that many of them were simply taking advantage of a free day out in the capital, rather than really opposing his plans for labour law reform.

Tax revenue has reportedly taken a dive since the beginning of the year, although the economy minister, Giulio Tremonti, has assured the public that it is on track. Mr Tremonti will indeed be a mathematical genius if he manages to deliver promised tax cuts next year without breaching the EU's stability pact.

Communications: 3/10. Mr Berlusconi is nothing if not a good communicator, but his government has produced a cacophony of discordant voices. The anti-European sentiments expressed by the likes of defence minister Antonio Martino and reform minister Umberto Bossi precipitated the resignation of Renato Ruggiero from the foreign ministry last year, depriving the cabinet of one of its few internationally respected figures. Their criticism of the trade unions - suggesting a link to the Red Brigades killers of labour law expert Marco Biagi - undercut the prime minister's attempt to revive negotiations with the unions on labour law reform.

Justice: 2/10. New laws making it more difficult for prosecutors to collect evidence from abroad and reducing the penalties for false accounting looked suspiciously like a favour to Mr Berlusconi the media magnate, who is accused of false accounting and other financial crimes the key to which allegedly lies in Swiss bank records. The reaction of rightwing ministers to the arrest of eight policemen for allegedly beating and intimidating protesters in Naples last year showed a clear preference for order over law.

Conflict of interests: 1/10. A law purporting to tackle the conflict between Mr Berlusconi's £7bn business empire and his role as prime minister has had zero impact. If anything, things have got worse. Now controlling 90% of the country's broadcasting system, Mr Berlusconi has not hesitated to call for the removal from state television of journalists who criticised him in the past.

Foreign policy: 8/10. After a bad start, with gaffes about the superiority of western civilisation over Islam and an aggressive approach to Europe that raised questions about the quality of his table manners, Mr Berlusconi has succeeded in imposing himself on the international stage. Italy is the world's fifth largest economic power, the third contributor to UN peace missions, the third contributor to the European Union and the sixth to the United Nations, he told Panorama.

"We have a right to count for what we are in the international community," he continued. Italy's success in pressing for a European solution to the Bethlehem standoff is the most recent example of this new assertiveness.

Could try harder? Not really. Mr Berlusconi is already prone to hyperactivity and taking on interim responsibility for the foreign ministry was probably unwise. He should slow down and take time off for reflection.

It still remains to be seen whether his new broom will be used to remove the cobwebs from the creaking machinery of state or to sweep personal dirt under the carpet. Or both.