Berlusconi on the Veronica Lario Story – “Lies of the Left and the Media”
Premier says opponents envy his popularity. “I’ve never had anything to do with minors”. “I love my wife but she has to apologise”.
ROME – Silvio Berlusconi was wearing a blue suit and polka dot tie when, clutching a blank sheet of paper, he turned up at the Porta a Porta studios to record the programme. On the wall behind him was a still frame image with the eloquent title: “Now it’s my turn to speak”. Referring to his marriage crisis, the prime minister explained that what happened “would not have occurred if the media had reported events correctly”. “The Left and its press”, he added, “cannot accept that my popularity rating is 75% and, given the state the Left is in, it has started to make personal attacks based on slander”. “Frankly, I wasn’t expecting all this brouhaha”, he continued. Although the falsifications of part of the press have caused problems in the past. They’ve already claimed that I said to one girl ‘I’d like to marry you’ when what I actually said was ‘You’re a really nice girl, you’re just the sort of girl a boy should marry’”. Mr Berlusconi said that in any case, the episode will not cost him approval among Catholics. “When everyone knows the truth”, he stressed, “they will be able to see that there was nothing unseemly going on. When it’s all cleared up, I’m sure that it will enhance my already substantial standing because with the Vatican, by its own admission, with our government there are the best relations with any government so far”.
SHOWGIRL CANDIDATES – Mr Berlusconi also spoke about reports of “showgirls” in the People of Freedom lists for the European elections, calling them “a trap my wife walked right into”. He pointed out: “There are no showgirls. It’s an absolute falsehood. There aren’t any on the lists”. In any case, he went on, “I utterly disapprove of anyone who stigmatises the girls who do this job to emancipate themselves”. He then went on to talk about one of the younger female candidates who was actually included on the lists and does not belong to the “showgirl” category. “Licia Renzulli heads a medical team that carries out missions in Bangladesh and elsewhere”, he said, “and the coordinators have already said that if she is elected, she will be nominated to coordinate our MEPs”. The premier then said one or two words about Barbara Matera: “She is extremely good-looking but also extremely serious. She will be precise, present and prepared exactly like the women I have brought into politics”. He added: “Our benchmarks are Gelmini, Carfagna and Ravetto, all women who put male parliamentarians to shame with attendance records of close to 98%”.
“I DIDN’T DRAW UP THE LISTS” – In any case, Mr Berlusconi added, “I didn’t draw up the lists. I was in Warsaw supporting Mario Mauro’s bid for the presidency of the European Parliament”. He pointed this out mainly to refute the assertion that the showgirls whose names were leaked by all the newspapers were on the list to start with, and then removed after his wife Veronica Lario’s outburst, in which she referred to “trash in bad taste”. The premier said: “I was working all day. I didn’t have a chance to remove any names from the lists”. Nevertheless, “there were no names that might have caused misunderstandings. Out of 100 candidates, they had to drop 28 to whittle the total down to 72. Both men and women were removed”.
“LIES” ABOUT MINORS – When Mr Berlusconi’s wife announced her decision to separate, she said she could accept the idea that her husband was seeing minors. The premier was emphatic: “It’s a lie. That girl’s father rang me because he wanted to see me and have a chat”. According to Mr Berlusconi La Repubblica, which with La Stampa was the first newspaper to report Ms Lario’s decision to sue for divorce, was to blame for the confusion. “What happened was this: La Repubblica – La Repubblica, again – ran a headline that implied I had been seeing a girl who had until then been a minor, since it was her 18th birthday”. Mr Berlusconi said it would be crazy to see minors and then make a show of the fact in public “in a very busy, very much photographed location”. He brushed aside suggestions that the photographs of Naomi Letizia’s party at Casoria, which appeared in Chi magazine, might have been tampered with, castigating to the “wilfulness” of the “leftwing papers”. According to Mr Berlusconi, the photographs are genuine: “Let them send reporters to the restaurant and ask the cooks, the staff and the other people present whether the photographs are fake”.
“I LOVE VERONICA VERY MUCH” – Mr Berlusconi then spoke about his relationship with his wife: “I love my wife very much and I do not want to add any more about my relationship with her”. He did, however, emphasise that certain episodes “have triggered something that is not entirely rational” and that “those in a public position can agree to the continuation of a relationship only if it is conceded” that the charges were based on two falsehoods and “if there is a public declaration that a mistake has been made”. On the divorce itself, he said “it is my duty not to talk about it”. Mr Berlusconi also said he loved his children “with all his soul”, adding that he was loved by them absolutely in return. “I believe that, insofar as my duties as prime minister permit me, I am an absolutely fantastic father who is very much loved by his children. I am certain of that”. Barbara’s son Alessandro is a little genius whom Silvio Berlusconi calls the “little Dalai Lama”. During the programme, Mr Berlusconi talked about being a grandfather and his grandson Alessandro’s relationship with his wife: “When I see her being a grandmother, the pain gets worse, much worse”. He told host Bruno Vespa: “If you only knew how wonderful it is to do it together...”.
THE EARTHQUAKE AND THE BANKS – Mr Berlusconi also talked about the earthquake and the economic crisis. “The banks are in a situation that the government has in its spotlight”, he said. I think the banks are making very big, and even excessive, profits so they should continue to support businesses”. On the subject of reconstruction in Abruzzo, he said that “for the time being, we have sufficient funds to maintain 70,000 people. If they prove insufficient in a year’s time, we will be asking Italians for to make up the difference. Today, the money is there. We have 100 million euros available and we’ll be adding more”.
English translation by Giles Watson
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Article in Italian