The Italian premiere says that he is not ashamed of ‘having fun’ but the sordid details of his 'bunga bunga' parties has now been revealed for the first time.
Italian premiere Silvio Berlusconi says that he is not ashamed of ‘having fun’ but the sordid details of his "bunga bunga" parties has now been revealed for the first time.
"Compared with Berlusconi, Caligula was a prude," the Telegraph quoted an opposition politician already having said this week.
That’s what the 389 pages of investigation and full gallery of skimpily dressed showgirls named in prosecutors' papers and assembled for the first time by the Daily Telegraph shows.
"After the meal," a woman on one of hundreds of surveillance tapes says, "I heard some girls saying 'Let’s go down to the bunga bunga (room)', a sort of disco with sofas, a dance pole, a kind of bar and bathrooms where the girls changed into revealing outfits."
Half-naked starlets are then said to have performed pole dances, put on stripteases and "wriggled up to the prime minister provocatively on the sofa, rubbing him up and letting him have a feel, indulging in mock lesbian kisses and rubbing against each other".
One witness described the women unflatteringly as "a bunch of idiots who dance like mongols".
A faithful lieutenant is taped saying, "He’s on form and raring to go. He’s just called me and he is on top form. This is the right evening but who can I find?"
A scramble follows, and women are in a frenzy to be at the parties because Berlusconi is viewed, according to one newspaper, as a "cash machine for which you need no PIN".
Another woman confided that if the prime minister reduced the frequency of his parties "we’d better start stealing stuff from the house".
"Berlusconi has become a figure of fun. He comes across as an old fool at the mercy of these girls and their relatives who use him as a sort of cash machine," said Klaus Davi, a media expert.
The wire even indicates parents and siblings encouraging girls to seduce the prime minister in return for money.
The brother of one told her that Berlusconi "could solve a lot of our problems, for mum, you and me".
Berlusconi's counter-attack soon followed.
"There’s been no graft, no incitement to prostitution, not even of a minor," he told Italians and then ominously threatened prosecutors with "punishment", accusing them of using wire taps against him and his guests as if they were gangsters.
Meanwhile, 50% of those interviewed in an Ipsos poll thought the scandal would not affect Berlusconi and could even boost his support in the event of an early election. But a slight majority, at 54%, did not share the prime minister’s view that he was being unfairly persecuted.
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