Berlusconi’s woes worsenwith fresh sex allegations

ITALY’S scandal-plagued Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi faced fresh legal and political headaches yesterday, with sliding approval ratings and fresh revelations of parties and young women paid for sex.

As Rome grapples to contain a financial storm that risks sending its €1.9 trillion public debt pile sliding out of control, Berlusconi’s legal problems have proved an increasingly surreal distraction from the crisis.

Newspapers yesterday were packed with photographs of young women associated with Berlusconi and businessman Giampaolo Tarantini, suspected of providing prostitutes for Berlusconi’s private parties.

Berlusconi’s lawyer Niccolo Ghedini issued a statement saying the premier was unaware of any connection between Tarantini and prostitution and repeating that there was nothing scandalous about the “convivial” evenings at his residences.

Berlusconi himself is not directly implicated in the case but magistrates want to interview him as a witness in a related investigation into suspected extortion.

Newspapers lavished coverage on the dozens of “papi girls” and carried fresh revelations from a probe into Tarantini, an entrepreneur from the southern city of Bari whom prosecutors believe provided the women in exchange for business favours.

“Gianpi, who are you bringing me this evening?” Berlusconi was quoted as saying in the transcript of a wiretapped conversation with Tarantini, arrested with his wife earlier this month. Having completed their investigation, prosecutors will now ask a judge to allow the case to go to trial.

One woman, actress Manuela Arcuri, found herself an unlikely heroine on Twitter after wiretaps showed she refused repeated requests from Tarantini to get involved in the parties.

The latest revelations — separate from the “Rubygate” case in which Berlusconi is accused of paying for sex with a minor — add to an ever more tangled web around the 74-year-old.