adminparties and young women prompted questions about his ability to govern a country rocked by financial crisis.
Italian newspapers in recent days have replaced front page headlines on soaring bond yields and sliding shares with wiretapped chats between Berlusconi and Giampaolo Tarantini, a businessman suspected of providing prostitutes for the premier.
In one excerpt published by the Corriere della Sera daily, Berlusconi boasts of champagne-filled partying with women till 6:30 am at a Milan nightclub and pocketing eight phone numbers of women. “If you have a girl – two girls, three girls – to bring,” Berlusconi is quoted as asking the southern businessman ahead of their next encounter. “Please don’t get tall ones . . . because we are not tall.”
In another excerpt reported by major dailies, Berlusconi says “Gianpi” and his female friends could come along on the premier’s flight to Milan. Yet another has him joking to a young woman that he works as prime minister during his “spare time”. Opposition parties stepped up calls for Berlusconi to resign after the latest disclosures, saying a country struggling to overcome a debt crisis that threatens the euro zone could not afford a premier who “governs in his spare time”. “Is there a single reason comprehensible to the world on why Berlusconi should not resign?,” Pier Luigi Bersani, leader of the centre-left Democratic Party said. “We have very serious problems.” Berlusconi’s old ally-turned-enemy Gianfranco Fini also called for a new government, while the Italy of Values party run by centrist Antonio Di Pietro said it was time for elections. – Reuters.
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