As Italian newspapers yesterday published photographs taken by call girls in the bathroom of Silvio Berlusconi's Rome residence and investigators expressed concerns over lapses of security, it was business as normal for the centre-right government with the prime minister's supporters denying the latest "scandal" would lead to his downfall.
"I don't see any changes in the (parliamentary) majority that could provoke a fall of the government," said Claudio Scajola, minister for economic development.
"And there are no other democratic mechanisms to bring about a change of the executive," he told the daily Corriere della Sera.
So far two women, one a self-described hostess and the other a former escort, have alleged that they were paid by a businessman in Bari, southern Italy, to attend parties at Mr Berlusconi's Villa Grazioli and his residence in Sardinia.
Barbara Montereale, 23, has told newspapers that Mr Berlusconi gave her €10,000 and jewellery "as a present" and she also received a €1,000 appearance fee from the businessman, Giampaolo Tarantini.
Ms Montereale also alleged that Patrizia D'Addario, 42, had told her she had sex with the 72-year-old prime minister on the night of the US elections last November.
Mr Berlusconi says this is "trash and lies". He is not the subject of the judicial investigation under way in Bari which is focused on allegations of corruption involving public health contracts awarded to Mr Tarantini. Newspapers quoted the businessman as saying he only paid the two women's "expenses".
Continue ...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e4b1572c-5f8d-11de-93d1-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento