ITALIAN PREMIER Silvio Berlusconi was supposed to meet Naples-based prosecutors yesterday as inquiries deepen into an alleged extortion plot against him over the “Bunga, Bunga” scandal. Instead, he went to Brussels and Strasbourg for meetings with EU leaders on the financial crisis.
It was late last week when Mr Berlusconi, who is advancing a new austerity plan, sought private talks with European Council president Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission president José Manuel Barroso. His request met with deep scepticism in Brussels as he specified the only day he could travel was yesterday, the very day of a meeting scheduled in Rome with the prosecutors.
The two EU leaders agreed to meet him, Mr Van Rompuy at his office in Brussels and Mr Barroso at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Mr Berlusconi was also meeting Jerzy Buzek, president of the parliament. These engagements meant Mr Berlusconi was not free to meet magistrates who are investigating an alleged attempt to blackmail him over his use of prostitutes.
They are investigating the activities of Giampaolo Tarantini, a businessman alleged to have supplied women for the infamous Bunga, Bunga parties in Mr Berlusconi’s homes in Rome and Sardinia.
Mr Berlusconi denies he was the victim of a plot, but claims he paid more than €700,000 to Mr Tarantini to help a family in need. As his opponents questioned why he had arranged leave Rome yesterday, Mr Berlusconi dismissed the suggestion he was trying to avoid the investigators and maintained he had nothing to fear from the affair.
In Italy, Mr Berlusconi’s absence was noted by the Naples chief Prosecutor, Giandomenico Lepore, who made it clear that the prime minister would not be able to evade questioning for ever. No citizen could “opt out” of a judicial interrogation, “just at his own pleasing”, he said.
With Italian bonds under pressure, Mr Berlusconi told Mr Van Rompuy that the lower house of parliament would give final approval to his new budget plan today. Mr Berlusconi’s government produced the plan at the behest of the European authorities when the debt crisis took its borrowing costs close to levels deemed unsustainable by the market.
Mr Van Rompuy welcomed the initiative, saying its formal adoption was crucial both for Italy and for the euro zone.
