TimesOnline
Richard Owen
May 21, 2009
In a furious outburst, Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, has accused his country’s press of “disgraceful behaviour” for revealing that Noemi Letizia, the aspiring teenage model at the centre of his divorce row, owns four properties in Naples.
Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy’s main financial paper, said that the public land registry showed that the Letizia family flat in the Naples suburb of Portici had been in the name of Ms Letizia, now 18, since 2003. Two other Naples flats were also in her name, one since 1995 and the other since 2005, as was a small family shop in the suburb of Secondigliano since 2002.
The paper noted that it was common for people to register property in the name of their children, that none of the properties was luxurious and that her parents, Benedetto Letizia and Anna Palumbo, had reserved the right to live in and use all of them.
The Letizia family live in an unspectacular middle-class Naples suburb. Mr Letizia, an employee of Naples council, confirmed that last year he declared an income of about €12,000 (£10,570). The revelation prompted an outraged response from the Prime Minister. Visiting L’Aquila, the centre of the earthquake zone in Abruzzo, where the G8 summit is to be held in July, Mr Berlusconi erupted in fury, saying: “The girl has been targeted by the newspapers in an unacceptable way.” Publishing her property holdings was “disgraceful and shameful”, he added.
Related Links
* Berlusconi urged to quit over Mills's testimony
* Friendship has a high price for Berlusconi
“What do private matters have to do with this? By what right do you occupy yourselves with them? I’ve been to I don’t know how many weddings, celebrations and anniversaries, I have nothing to hide. By what right do you persecute a respectable family?”
He then shouted: “Italians are with me,” and added that the latest private polling gave him a popularity rating of 74.8 per cent. A recent poll in the Italian press gave him a more modest — but still respectable — 53 per cent, although the number of those with “little or no confidence” in him is rising.
Mr Berlusconi, who was speaking after a press conference with José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission President, was already angry after a ruling by Milan judges earlier that day in the trial of David Mills, the British tax lawyer. The judges said that they found Mills guilty because he had been given a bribe of $600,000 by Mr Berlusconi to lie on his behalf in corruption trials in the 1990s.
Mills was sentenced to 4½ years in prison for perjury but is appealing against the verdict and is unlikely to go to jail before time runs out under Italy’s statute of limitations. The judges’ statement led to calls by the opposition for Mr Berlusconi to step down or repeal the law he passed last year giving himself immunity from prosecution.
The Prime Minister said that the verdict was “simply scandalous. The one indisputable fact in this case is that there was no payment by me to Signor Mills”. He said that the release of the reasoning behind the verdict was timed to influence the European elections in June. Asked by a reporter if he would repeal the immunity law and face trial, he exploded: “One cannot do anything with judges like these. I am furious about all this, I swear on my own children. I will not waste time replying to you. Either I go or you go. It’s like being told that my name is not Silvio Berlusconi.”
The Corriere della Sera newspaper reported that the Prime Minister had been overheard saying that he felt “encircled and hunted”, asking: “What do they want? Do they want me to die in an assassination attempt? What am I supposed to do? Disappear? Do they want me to give up everything and resign? What do they want?”
The Prime Minister’s office said it was unable to confirm that Mr Berlusconi had made the remarks.
Richard Owen
May 21, 2009
In a furious outburst, Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, has accused his country’s press of “disgraceful behaviour” for revealing that Noemi Letizia, the aspiring teenage model at the centre of his divorce row, owns four properties in Naples.
Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy’s main financial paper, said that the public land registry showed that the Letizia family flat in the Naples suburb of Portici had been in the name of Ms Letizia, now 18, since 2003. Two other Naples flats were also in her name, one since 1995 and the other since 2005, as was a small family shop in the suburb of Secondigliano since 2002.
The paper noted that it was common for people to register property in the name of their children, that none of the properties was luxurious and that her parents, Benedetto Letizia and Anna Palumbo, had reserved the right to live in and use all of them.
The Letizia family live in an unspectacular middle-class Naples suburb. Mr Letizia, an employee of Naples council, confirmed that last year he declared an income of about €12,000 (£10,570). The revelation prompted an outraged response from the Prime Minister. Visiting L’Aquila, the centre of the earthquake zone in Abruzzo, where the G8 summit is to be held in July, Mr Berlusconi erupted in fury, saying: “The girl has been targeted by the newspapers in an unacceptable way.” Publishing her property holdings was “disgraceful and shameful”, he added.
Related Links
* Berlusconi urged to quit over Mills's testimony
* Friendship has a high price for Berlusconi
“What do private matters have to do with this? By what right do you occupy yourselves with them? I’ve been to I don’t know how many weddings, celebrations and anniversaries, I have nothing to hide. By what right do you persecute a respectable family?”
He then shouted: “Italians are with me,” and added that the latest private polling gave him a popularity rating of 74.8 per cent. A recent poll in the Italian press gave him a more modest — but still respectable — 53 per cent, although the number of those with “little or no confidence” in him is rising.
Mr Berlusconi, who was speaking after a press conference with José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission President, was already angry after a ruling by Milan judges earlier that day in the trial of David Mills, the British tax lawyer. The judges said that they found Mills guilty because he had been given a bribe of $600,000 by Mr Berlusconi to lie on his behalf in corruption trials in the 1990s.
Mills was sentenced to 4½ years in prison for perjury but is appealing against the verdict and is unlikely to go to jail before time runs out under Italy’s statute of limitations. The judges’ statement led to calls by the opposition for Mr Berlusconi to step down or repeal the law he passed last year giving himself immunity from prosecution.
The Prime Minister said that the verdict was “simply scandalous. The one indisputable fact in this case is that there was no payment by me to Signor Mills”. He said that the release of the reasoning behind the verdict was timed to influence the European elections in June. Asked by a reporter if he would repeal the immunity law and face trial, he exploded: “One cannot do anything with judges like these. I am furious about all this, I swear on my own children. I will not waste time replying to you. Either I go or you go. It’s like being told that my name is not Silvio Berlusconi.”
The Corriere della Sera newspaper reported that the Prime Minister had been overheard saying that he felt “encircled and hunted”, asking: “What do they want? Do they want me to die in an assassination attempt? What am I supposed to do? Disappear? Do they want me to give up everything and resign? What do they want?”
The Prime Minister’s office said it was unable to confirm that Mr Berlusconi had made the remarks.
