Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was firmly back in the international spotlight yesterday after the tape recordings of escort girl's Patrizia D'Addario encounters with him were published on the websites of L'Espresso and Repubblica.
In the recordings rather unpleasant details of the type of relationships Berlusconi had with escorts emerge. He refused to use condoms and paid little attention to who the girls were. The only "privilige" he conceded to D'Addario is to take a note of her surname as he was particularly pleased at the end of the all-nighter.
One can clearly hear the voice of Berlusconi asking the girl to go to "Putin's bed" - a bed Putin had presented to Berlusconi as a gift - and wait for him as he showered.
In other recordings you can hear Berlusconi bragging to a group of girls that he is the only international leader to have presided the G8 three times - and the subsequent "oohs" and "aaahs" of the girls eager to please the premier's ego.
Berlusconi is dismissing all accusations as lies and irrelevant. Nevertheless, yesterday, during a failed attempt by the opposition parties to debate the issue in parliament, his personal lawyer and Italian parliament member Niccolo Ghedini was careful not to claim that the recordings were fake. Instead they focused on procedural points that prevent a discussion from going forward and claimed that the publication of the recordings was illegal. He also added that Berlusconi said "I have no memory of the girl - I do not remember neither the name nor the face". The mass of evidence of pictures, films and tapes that clearly show Berlusconi had several encounters with D'Addario, including the fact that she was a candidate for his party in Puglia all point to the opposite.
