Election tensions spiralled here on Tuesday after Premier Silvio Berlusconi used a very offensive word to describe opposition voters.
Addressing a national retailers' conference ahead of general elections on April 9/10, Berlusconi said that "I have too much respect for the intelligence of Italians to think they would be such 'coglioni' as to vote against their own interests - pardon my rough but effective language".
'Coglioni' literally means 'testicles' or 'balls' but in this context could be replaced in English with 'asshole'. It is considered a swear word that should not be used in television.
The billionaire media magnate later sought to play down the storm of reactions triggered by his words.
He told journalists on leaving the conference that "I was just being ironical".
"I was smiling when I said it and I was joking around whereas they (the opposition) have called me a political criminal, a mafioso, a murderer - accusations they have yet to prove and which they have never said sorry for," said the centre-right leader, who was trailing in the last polls released before a pre-election blackout.
"As per usual, the Left is trying to manipulate my words to build a non-existent case," he added.
However, the tensions rise because while political opponents have often traded various insults this is the first time that voters get directly insulted - a big gaffe that many of Berlusconi's coalition had a hard tim defending.
Berlusconi's adversary, former European Commission chief Romano Prodi, refused to comment on the matter but his allies expressed indignation. Democratic Left leader Piero Fassino, whose party is the largest in the opposition coalition, said that "if Berlusconi were a serious person, he would apologise to the many Italians whom he has offended. After these insulting words,
the number of Italians voting to send him packing will be even more".
The hard-left Italian Communists' Party commented that "to regard voters on the opposite side as 'coglioni' shows that he just doesn't know what democracy means". Groups of ordinary left-wing supporters swiftly responded by creating an Internet blog saying they were proud to be 'coglioni' if that meant voting against Berlusconi.
Meanwhile, Berlusconi's allies rallied to the premier's defence. Deputy Premier and leader of the right-wing National Alliance Gianfranco Fini said that "Berlusconi used a slang word used by 70% of Italians. Let's not blow it up out of proportion. He didn't mean to be offensive". Fini, the leader of the ex-fascist, is also on record insulting opposition parliamentaries in the same way. However, Fini had immediately apologised recognised the gravity of the insult.
House Speaker Pier Ferdinando Casini of the centrist, Catholic UDC sought to distance himself from the ruckus, saying the premier's expression had been "over the top."
The polemics coincided with another row over Berlusconi's unexpected pledge to abolish council property taxes, known as ICI, on voters' first homes.
The premier delivered his promise out of the blue during the closing seconds of a televised duel with Prodi on Monday night, giving his rival no time to reply or seek details.
While the centre right hailed it as a brilliant move, the centre left accused the premier of behaving incorrectly and demanded to know how, if voted back in, he intended to make up for the loss in revenues.
Town councils rely on ICI revenues, which amount to some 2.3-2.5 billion euros a year, to help fund key local services.
