Berlusconi: I'm Not Going Anywhere

Italian PM accused of intervening in teen girl's theft case

(NEWSER) - A major Catholic magazine in Italy has blasted Silvio Berlusconi for having what it calls “a disease, something uncontrollable” when it comes to women, the Daily Telegraph reports. The latest accusation in the PM’s never-dull love life: That he stepped in and helped get an underage girl out of prison, scot-free. “It is incredible that a man in such a position does not have the necessary self-control,” wrote La Famiglia Cristiana. More»

(NEWSER) - Besieged Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is “a national joke,” Michael Wolff writes in Vanity Fair. He’s also immensely popular. In the midst of his most recent sex scandal, he and his party were handily reelected. What’s the deal? To begin with, “he controls his country’s dominant political party, its primary television networks, and its government.” So what if he's an incorrigible Lothario—"a dime-store Sinatra”—whose wife airs their dirty laundry and seeks divorce? More»

Italian PM ready to leave his 'shitty' country

(NEWSER) - The “bunga bunga” fallout continues: Police nabbed an Italian businessman for allegedly blackmailing Silvio Berlusconi in the sex scandal that’s clouded his tenure as prime minister. Giampaolo Tarantini has acknowledged recruiting women for Berlusconi’s alleged sex parties, but he’s maintained that the PM didn’t know that some were escorts. Police say Tarantini was paid almost $750,000 to protect Berlusconi and to seek a fast-track trial that would reveal as little as possible about the parties. More»

Says one of those call girls, an aspiring model

(NEWSER) - The tawdry allegations against Silvio Berlusconi just keep on coming: Now, a call girl (who claims the Italian premier paid her more than $14,000 for sex) says he used his private jet to supply marijuana to the sex parties at his villa. “There was grass available in all the rooms,” Nadia Macri, 28, tells investigators—although she says she never saw Berlusconi himself smoking. More»

Italian PM shrugs off call-girl scandal as 'low-level stuff'

(NEWSER) - Silvio Berlusconi appeared unconcerned about the recent disclosure of tapes of an alleged intimate conversation between him and a prostitute, the Telegraph reports. “There are a lot of pretty girls about. I am no saint but you know that,” the Italian PM said today in his first public comments on the matter. The “low-level” allegations “don’t touch me,” he told members of his party. More»