Sex scandal hits Italian PM - 27/05/2009

Berlusconi's girl trouble

By Fiachra Gibbons/RFI

The Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi looks set to storm to victory in the European elections despite corruption charges and the growing scandal surrounding his relationship with a lingerie model 54 years his junior.

First indications are that the extraordinary soap opera of the ageing tycoon's relationship with with 18-year-old Noemi Letizia is not taking the shine off his new centre-right People of Freedom party's showing in the polls. Instead, it appears that a section of the Italian electorate harbour a certain admiration for the 72-year-old leader's apparent wooing of the teenage model. Berlusconi sent the rumour mill wild when he turned up at her 18^th birthday party in Naples to give her a gold and diamond necklace worth several thousand euros.

The gesture was the final straw for his estranged wife Veronica Lario, who demanded a divorce as soon as she saw pictures of him with the aspiring young model, saying that she was sick of him "frequenting minors". Berlusconi insists nothing improper happened between him and the teenager, who refers to him as "Papi" (Daddy), while remaining vague about the nature of their relationship.

Lario had earlier complained that her husband's candidates for the polls - including a former Miss Italy contestant - were chosen more for their physical charms than their political experience.

The jailing of one of his tax advisors for four and half years also resurrected corruption claims. The court in Milan made the situation worse by spelling out how British tax lawyer David Mills accepted a large bribe from the Italian leader in exchange for giving false testimony on his behalf. Mills is now appealing the verdict.

Despite such headaches, Berlusconi is tipped to win easily with 38 to 40 per cent of the vote against 26 per cent for the main opposition Democratic Party, according to the latest polls. Berlusconi is the only national leader standing in the polls, which he hopes will cement his new party's dominance of Italian politics.

"It is disgraceful the conduct of people who invade privacy and use private matters for political attacks," the prime minister told CNN, insisting "there is nothing, nothing at all" going on between himself and the teenager.

"I will still have the Italians on my side and once again this accusation will act as a boomerang against the people who have started it. Even my wife fell into this error and believed what the press said," he added.

Berlusconi, who is also Italy's richest man, says he felt a "great sense of sacrifice" in leading the nation, a job he said he does not like. "I'm here because unfortunately right now Berlusconi is considered the only leader capable of holding the centre-right together, and so I think this is a cross I must bear and bear it I will with sacrifice for a while," he said.

Berlusconi also blamed the media for portraying him as gaffe-prone clown. "I have never made any gaffes, not even one. Every gaffe is invented by the newspapers," he said.

(Photo: Reuters)

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Anonymous

- 31/05/2009