Under siege
September 17, 2011
Embattled Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi faced renewed calls for his resignation on Saturday in the wake of phone transcripts that reveal further details of a sex scandal allegedly involving a prostitution ring.
The phone transcripts emerged from an investigation into businessman Giampaolo Tarantini and seven other individuals who allegedly provided Berlusconi with women in exchange for lucrative government contracts.
Tarantini allegedly extorted 850,000 euros ($1.2 million) from Berlusconi in exchange for remaining silent to prosecutors regarding the Italian premier's parties.
Although Berlusconi is not under investigation in the Tarantini case, the Italian premier does face three tax fraud trials and allegations that he paid for sex with an underage Moroccan dancer.
In one phone transcript, Berlusconi apologizes to the Dominican dancer Marysthell Polanco for not being able to spend more time with her due to his busy schedule.
"You know, Marysthell, in my spare time I'm the prime minister," Berlusconi said.
In another transcript, the premier tells how women were scrambling to spend the night with him. "There were 11 of them, but I only did eight because I couldn't do any more," he is quoted as saying.
Calls for resignation
Members of the political opposition, meanwhile, have called on Berlusconi to resign as the head of the current center-right coalition government in light of the revelations.
Berlusconi's approval rating has plummeted to an all-time low of 24 percent in the midst of an escalating debt crisis that the political opposition believes he is incapable of handling in light of the various legal proceedings against him.
"Italy, with the serious problems it is facing, cannot have an executive who governs in his spare time," the left-wing Democratic Party (PD) said.
But Berlusconi was defiant in an article published in the conservative political daily Il Foglio, insisting that he had done nothing wrong and would serve out his full term until the 2013 elections.
"The problem is that for the past three years there has been a mischievous attempt to transform my private life into a crime," Berlusconi wrote.
Author: Spencer Kimball (AFP, Reuters)
Editor: Andreas Illmer