Berlusconi is not under investigation in the case. But the disclosures are proving further embarrassment for the 74-year-old leader, already facing criticism over Italy’s financial crisis and engulfed in a sex scandal.
“Italy Deserves Better,’’ La Stampa newspaper said in an editorial yesterday.
“To have a premier who must spend hours with his lawyers to map out strategies to defend himself undoubtedly damages the nation, as that time is taken away from institutional activities such as foreign affairs or public finances,’’ the newspaper wrote.
Berlusconi is on trial in separate cases in Milan on charges of corruption, tax fraud, and paying for sex with a minor.
He might face another one after a Milan judge said Thursday he should be indicted for his role in the publication about five years ago, in a family-owned newspaper, of wiretaps that damaged a political rival and were covered by the secrecy of an ongoing investigation. No decision on a possible indictment has been made.
The premier has always denied wrongdoing, saying he is the victim of politically driven magistrates intent on ousting him from power.
He has maintained that the parties at his villas - now known as “bunga bunga’’ and described as sex-filled bacchanalia - were decent and elegant soirees where nothing tawdry was going on.
The premier has also denied ever paying for sex.
In a letter to Italian newspaper Il Foglio, Berlusconi wrote that “I did nothing for which I must be ashamed.’’
The website of the newspaper, whose editor served as minister in a former Berlusconi government, quoted the premier as saying, “I won’t throw in the towel.’’ It further quoted him as describing intercepted phone conversations that are at the heart of the probe as “systematic spying.’’
Tarantini has insisted Berlusconi didn’t pay the women and didn’t know that he did. Tarantini is under investigation for allegedly aiding and abetting prostitution.
