Premier Silvio Berlusconi will probably laugh off an editorial by the Financial Times which accused the Italian right-wing leader of being a ''danger to Italy and a malign example'' to all, Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said on Wednesday.
Maroni said he usually laughs at criticism and carries on with his life and Berlusconi ''will do the same''.
Foreign minister Franco Frattini said the editorial was an example of a ''bad'' and ''dishonest'' press.
''The result of the Italian government's work is in front of everyone,'' referring to Italy's diplomatic efforts as president of the Group of Eight this year.
In an editorial published Wednesday entitled the Baleful Influence of Burlesque Cronies, the Financial Times said Berlusconi could not be called a fascist or compared to dictator Benito Mussolini.
''He has squads of starlets, not of Blackshirts,'' said the London daily, referring to the media reports that Berlusconi had attempted to field television starlets for the upcoming European elections prior to a messy divorce spat with his wife Veronica Lario, who has accused him of consorting with teenagers.
'' The real dangers lie elsewhere,'' said the daily.
'' Over the 15 years of his political career - always as prime minister, or as leader of the opposition - he has had a largely untrammelled opportunity to shift the national mood rightwards,'' said the Financial Times.
'' This he has done not by crude propaganda but by a steady concentration on glitz, glitter and girls and a hyperbolic style of media-geared rhetoric that sees all opposition as communist and himself as a victim,'' said the editorial.
The Italian premier has shown ''belligerence towards magistrates'', calling them left-wing activists and has said that parliament is ''useless'', saying it ''should be drastically reduced to 100 members, while his powers increase''.
''That he is so dominant is partly the fault of a faltering left; of weak and sometimes politicised institutions; of journalism which has too often accepted a subaltern status. Most of all it is the fault of a very wealthy, very powerful and increasingly ruthless man. No fascist, but a danger, in the first place to Italy, and a malign example to all''.
Berlusconi's office did not issue a comment on the editorial but the premier's lawyer, MP Niccolo' Ghedini, said it was ''not so much an offense against Berlusconi but to Italians''.
''Berlusconi is certainly not dangerous, otherwise one would have to claim that the 20 million Italians who voted for him are completely insane''.
But Antonio Di Pietro, a former graft-busting magistrate and leader of the opposition Italy of Values party, compared Berlusconi to the emperor Nero who played the fiddle while Rome burned.
'We've got a home-spun Nero who enjoys seeing our country burn economically, socially and at an institutional level''.
Di Pietro, whose party is attempting to file a no confidence motion against Berlusconi, urged other MPs to sign the document so that it can be debated in parliament.
