ROME — Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Thursday that he had used a state plane to ferry personal guests to his private villa — but that there was nothing improper as he and other government officials were flying on the jet.
Rome prosecutors earlier in the week launched an investigation into whether the premier allegedly abused his powers by arranging for partygoers — including a dancer and singer — to use government aircraft and for official security escorts to travel to his villa on the island of Sardinia.
WOULD YOU buy a second-hand car from this man? Or, more precisely, would you want this man to educate your children? The man is media tycoon and Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and the man asking the second question is Dario Franceschini, leader of the main opposition party, the Democratic Party (PD).
On Thursday Berlusconi issued yet another denial of involvement with an 18-year-old model, telling reporters in Rome that if someone asked whether he had “a relationship, let’s say steamy or more than steamy, with an underage girl”, his answer would be: “Absolutely not.”
Italians are always scornful about the obsession of the “Anglo-Saxon” media with the private lives of the rich and famous, but for the past month the Italian newspapers have been preoccupied with one subject and one subject only: the relationship between Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and a young woman from Naples called Noemi Letizia.
Mr Berlusconi has been caught out telling numerous lies about the relationship and refuses to explain them. And with important elections pending, his popularity, at an all-time high only six weeks ago, may be eroding.
