From Times Online
October 9, 2009
Lucy Bannerman in Rome
An indignant wave of political opponents, women’s groups and online activists are clamouring for the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to apologise for a sexist insult that he made to a female politician during a live television show.
Mr Berlusconi appeared on the late-night talk show Porta a Porta hours after the country’s highest court stripped him of his immunity to prosecution, reactivating a series of criminal court cases against him.
When he was interrupted by Rosy Bindi, a politician in the Democratic Party, he told her: “I recognise you are increasingly more beautiful than you are intelligent.”
Ms Bindi, 58, replied: “I am not one of the women at your disposal, Prime Minister.”
The exchange has inflamed yet another feminist protest against the Italian leader, whose ability to insult women — whether intentional or not — is becoming legendary.
Ms Bindi, who has held senior government positions including Minister of Health and Minster of Family, has reportedly received thousands of messages of support, including calls from the former Prime Minister Romano Prodi and Walter Veltroni, the former Democratic party leader and former Mayor of Rome.
Several Facebook groups promoting “Solidarity with Rosy Bindi” sprung up overnight. Another online campaign, with the slogan “We are all Rosy Bindi”, gained momentum on social networking sites.
The left-leaning daily newspaper La Repubblica, which has led coverage of the sex scandals that have blighted Mr Berlusconi’s leadership over the past six months, invited readers to identify themselves as a “woman offended by the premier”.
Dario Franceschini, leader of the opposition Democratic Party, demanded an apology from Mr Berlusconi for his “rude and vulgar insults.”
When pressed to retract the comment, Paolo Bonaiuti, the Prime Minister’s spokesman, said: “Bindi? These are moments of white heat, it can happen. . .”
Mr Berlusconi, 73, insists that he loves women. Critics say that this hardly clears him of long-standing accusations of chauvinism and that he appears to love women for little else beyond youth and beauty.
Giovanna Melandri, a party colleague of Ms Bindi, said that the remark summed up “the Berlusconi philosophy towards women”.
Ms Bindi said today: “I responded on behalf of all women, not to defend myself from the offence given by Berlusconi, which doesn’t bother me at all. I have received no apology, and neither do I want one. The Prime Minister ought to apologise instead to the court and the President of the Republic.”
She said that she had been offended by Mr Berlusconi’s fierce attack on the Italian courts and the Italian President, Giorgio Napolitano, who he accused of being part of a left-wing plot against his leadership.
Mr Berlusconi ran into trouble in April when his wife, Veronica Lario, announced that she was seeking divorce because he “consorts with minors”. Ms Lario said that her decision to seek divorce was prompted in part by her husband’s appearance at the birthday party of Noemi Letizia, an aspiring teenage model who calls the premier “papi”.
An escort girl, Patrizia D’Addario, later claimed that she had been offered a political position after sleeping with Mr Berlusconi on the night of the US elections.
Emma Bonino, vice-president of the Italian senate, disparaged the leader’s behaviour towards Ms Bindi. She said: “It is pathetic. No political fight justifies such a second-rate, misogynistic insult.”
In an open letter to La Repubblica the French-Italian academic Michela Marzano, the writer and journalist Barbara Spinelli and the Columbia University academic Nadia Urbinati wrote: “We protest against this cretinisation of women, of democracy, of politics itself. This man offends women and democracy. Let’s stop him.”
The protests come after a similar movement this summer, when a group of academics persuaded 15,000 people to sign a petition asking the wives of world leaders to boycott the G8 conference in L’Aquila in protest at the plight of women in Berlusconi's Italy.
1 commento:
Berlusconi doesn't seem to understand the concept of being 'P.C.' which is strange since he's a politician
Posta un commento