After fresh revelations about his private life, Italy’s leader Silvio Berlusconi is taking action to restore his dignity
AS Silvio Berlusconi ate breakfast with a prostitute in his bedroom after a wakeful night last November, she complimented him on his sexual stamina.
A younger man would not have lasted so long, purred Patrizia D’Addario, because “young people are under a hell of a lot of pressure”.
The alleged postcoital conversation of Italy’s 72-year-old prime minister was captured on tape by D’Addario, 42, and a partial transcript was published in L’Espresso magazine last week.
Barack Obama had been confirmed as the victor of America’s presidential election. But at Berlusconi’s Rome residence the prime minister seemed preoccupied with advising his guest to “touch yourself often” and saying premature ejaculation runs in families.
After another week of excruciating disclosures about the billionaire Berlusconi’s peccadillos and predilections between the sheets – and with the promise of more embarrassments to follow from further tapes – it was hardly surprising that his aides were anxious to restore some of his shredded dignity.
With his popularity slipping below 50% for the first time, they let it be known that he wants to put the scandal behind him and is planning a “sober summer”.
Berlusconi will stay away from his estate in Sardinia, which he has considered selling after paparazzi caught him in the company of beautiful young women on previous holidays. Instead, he will prepare the way for a comeback after the summer break by supervising construction projects in L’Aquila, in central Italy, which was badly damaged by an earthquake in April. Berlusconi hosted the G8 summit there earlier this month.
In an attempt to woo the Catholic church, several of whose cardinals have lambasted him for setting a poor moral example, Berlusconi also intends to visit the shrine of Padre Pio, a hugely popular saint, in southern Italy.
It will make a stark contrast with the exchanges recorded at the Palazzo Grazioli, Berlusconi’s home in the capital.
Two other transcripts leaked last week had him telling D’Addario to wait for him in “Putin’s bed” and wanting her to have sex with another female friend of his.
Gianpaolo Tarantini, 34, a businessman from Bari in southern Italy who has been accused of abetting prostitution by paying women to attend Berlusconi’s parties, was quoted as briefing D’Addario before she met the prime minister in October.
“He doesn’t use condoms, you decide,” the transcript said. “But he won’t take you as an escort, you understand? He takes you as a friend of mine.” He added that, if all went well, Berlusconi would “settle up” in some way.
That first evening Berlusconi gave D’Addario a running commentary as he showed a film of his Villa Certosa estate on Sardinia’s Emerald Coast. He boasted about its various delights, including “the prime minister’s ice-cream shop”.
“It also makes sorbets. Look, how wonderful, this is where they make ice-cream!” he said. He then mentioned a lake whose swans he had removed during the summer, “because we want the water to be clean so we can swim there”.
Other treasures include a fossilised whale, meteorites (which he may have confused with megaliths) and a pizzeria.
D’Addario decided not to stay that first night and said Tarantini paid her £850 for attending the dinner.
The prostitute has given prosecutors investigating Tarantini audio tapes from that evening and from the night of November 4-5 which she says she spent with Berlusconi. She also filmed the bedroom with her mobile phone.
The prime minister, who has dismissed her account as “trash and lies”, tried to laugh it off last week with a joke: “It’s true: I’m not a saint.”
Apart from the blow to his personal reputation, the political impact of the affair is taking its toll.
Dario Franceschini, leader of the centre-left Democratic party, the biggest opposition group, claimed Berlusconi could fall this autumn, weakened by declining popularity, coalition tensions and the government’s failure to deal with the economic downturn.
“He’s imprisoned himself in a reality show that he created,” Franceschini said.
Few commentators believe the prime minister’s position is in any immediate danger. But critics have accused him of hypocrisy in consorting with D’Addario while drafting morality legislation and a bill that would throw prostitutes’ clients into jail.
One poll last week showed Berlusconi’s approval rating falling to 49%, for the first time, against 53% in May. Berlusconi, who commissions his own polls, claimed his rating had risen to 68%.
Over the weeks ahead he is expected to project a “can-do” image from L’Aquila. He is anxious to fulfil a promise that thousands of local people made homeless by the earthquake would be out of their campsites and into new housing by the autumn.
As for his pilgrimage to Padre Pio’s shrine, Berlusconi is likely to face further embarrassment regardless of his prayers. An informed source said the audio tapes made by D’Addario last for four hours. So far only about a quarter has been leaked.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6727684.ece
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