John Hooper in Rome
guardian.co.uk, Monday 29 June 2009 19.59 BST
Italy's head of state today begged his country's politicians and journalists to safeguard its international reputation by suspending discussion of controversial issues in the run-up to next week's summit of the G8 rich nations, which Silvio Berlusconi will chair against a background of sensational allegations about his sex life. "Given the sensitivity of this international event, it would be quite right to call a truce in the controversies between now and the G8," President Giorgio Napolitano said.
He did not identify which controversies he had in mind, but Berlusconi's alleged involvement with callgirls and friendship with a teenage would-be actress and model have been at the centre of public attention for more than a month. The prime minister last night endorsed Napolitano's suggestion.
"We hope the head of state's invitation is taken up," he added. Berlusconi swept aside speculation that his government might fall, saying it was "the most stable and secure in the entire west".
He was speaking at a press conference in Naples aboard the Fantasia, a cruise liner that was to have hosted the summit delegations before the prime minister switched the venue from Sardinia to the earthquake-struck inland city of L'Aquila.
Deploying a welter of statistics, diagrams and artists' impressions, the prime minister assured the media that his illustrious guests would nevertheless be received in style at a large revenue guard barracks hastily converted for the occasion. He said the site would soon have 121,000 square metres of gardens with 6,850 bushes and extensive lawns.
Picking up on the theme of the danger to Italy's international standing, the prime minister said: "We shall certainly not make a bad impression."
Napolitano said he had had a "wide-ranging" conversation with Berlusconi about the G8 summit. But it was unclear if it had taken place before or after he launched his highly unusual appeal for what in effect would be a suspension of normal democratic life in Italy.
Magistrates in the southern city of Bari are questioning about 30 women, some of whom are alleged to have been paid by a local businessman to attend five parties held by Berlusconi. One has said that a paid escort slept with Italy's married prime minister last November.
The controversy surrounding the alleged callgirls has temporarily obscured an earlier scandal over Berlusconi's mysterious relationship with an 18-year-old Neapolitan girl who applied for a job on one of his television channels. The prime minister said he would make a statement to parliament about his friendship with the girl, but has never done so.
There was no immediate reaction to Napolitano's initiative from the leader of Italy's biggest opposition group, the Democratic party (PD), which appeared to be split on the issue.
The head of the party in the lower house of parliament, Antonello Soro, said the president was "absolutely right", but added that Berlusconi, with his "statements and continuous accusations", had been responsible for much of the controversy. A PD backbencher, Marco Beltrandi, said however that he was shocked by the president's appeal, which would be "unacceptable anywhere". Antonio Di Pietro, leader of the smaller Italy of Principles party, dismissed the idea that the country's image could be damaged by further controversy. "The whole world laughs at us," he said. "We should resolve this cancer that is called the Berlusconi government as soon as possible, even before the G8 [summit]."
G8 summits are a delicate issue for Berlusconi. The last one he hosted, in Genoa in 2001, was the scene of violent clashes between police and protesters in which a demonstrator was shot dead. Several dozen police officers were later put on trial in connection with a bloody attack on unarmed protesters.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/29/silvio-berlusconi-g8-summit-allegations
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