ONE OF Silvio Berlusconi’s daughters has publicly distanced herself from the Italian prime minister, saying she was amazed to learn of her 72-year-old father’s relationship with a teenage girl.
The interview was the first given by any of Mr Berlusconi’s children since the first of the scandals broke when his second wife, Veronica Lario, announced in May that she intended to file for divorce. At almost the same time, it was reported that the prime minister had attended the 18th birthday party of an aspiring actress and model, Noemi Letizia.
“I was amazed,” Barbara Berlusconi said in an interview to be published in the Italian edition of Vanity Fair today, adding that public officials should enhance moral values and that they cannot make “a distinction between [their] public life and private life”.
Asked about the links between her father and Ms Letizia, Barbara, the eldest child by Mr Berlusconi’s second marriage, said: “My story is that of a girl who lived her youth in a normal and tranquil fashion. I never frequented old men. These are psychological links of which I have no experience.”
The unmarried Barbara (25), who has two children, said of her parents’ marriage problems: “I want to be close to both my parents, because what does not come out is that their suffering is profound and touches them both.”
When asked if her parents’ break-up signalled the end of a great love, she told the magazine: “I am sure that it was for mamma. But certainly in 30 years of life together, they have always had their mutual good at heart.” Asked about the contrast between the prime minister’s conduct and his enduring popularity, she said: “I think that a society expresses a common sense of morality. Political representatives, who are expected to govern well, [and] make the community prosper, are also expected to safeguard the values that [the community] expresses, possibly to raise them. I do not believe therefore that a politician can permit himself a distinction between public life and private life.” Mr Berlusconi has never fulfilled a pledge to explain in parliament his relationship with Ms Letizia, who applied for a job on one of his television channels.
The initial scandal over Mr Berlusconi’s links to Ms Letizia was subsequently overtaken by another concerning parties at his villa on Sardinia and in his Rome palazzo attended by escorts allegedly paid by a businessman seeking health service contracts.
One of the escorts, who has said that she spent the night with Berlusconi in the hope of an increased payment, has supplied prosecutors with recordings she claims to have made in the prime minister’s bedroom and elsewhere.
The prosecutors are investigating the businessman on suspicion of corruption and the aiding and abetting of prostitution.
– (Guardian service)