Berlusconi's mouth gets him into trouble again

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi appears to have put his foot in his mouth again.

This time he said Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini never killed anyone and only sent people away on holidays in internal exile, a claim that greatly distressed Jewish leaders.

Billionaire Berlusconi’s party was quick to say that the quote had not yet been confirmed.

The newspaper that published the comments said they were as close as possible to those transcribed from a tape-recorded interview.

The remarks appeared in La Voce di Rimini, following an interview with two journalists, one of whom works for London’s The Spectator and one of whom works for the local Italian paper.

The comment reportedly came during a discussion of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship, which brought up Italy’s experience with a tyrannical leader. Mussolini ruled Italy from 1922 until his death in 1943.

“Mussolini never killed anyone. Mussolini used to send people on vacation in internal exile,” Berlusconi was quoted as saying.

Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party spokesman Sandro Bondi said “these lines must be confirmed.” He added that “the Fascist regime, as we all know, was a dictatorial and authoritarian regime.

“But as is universally accepted by all historians on the right and on the left, it cannot be in any way compared to Nazism or communism, which practised systematic genocide against their own people and other peoples.”

Amos Luzzatto, the president of the Italian Jewish community, expressed “sadness” over the reported remarks.

“The Fascist regime did not make extermination camps for the Jews, but certainly it contributed to creating them,” he said.

“If killing someone only means hitting an adversary and killing him, then not even Hitler killed anyone. But in that way, we can say that there are no murderers in the world.”

Widespread persecution of Italian Jews began in 1938 when Mussolini’s regime issued racial laws. In 1943, German troops occupied northern and central Italy, and almost 7,000 Jews were deported, 5,910 of whom were killed.

The Italian Jewish community now numbers about 30,000, mainly in Rome and Milan.

Berlusconi is known for off-the-cuff remarks that have sometimes got him into trouble.

Speaking at the European Parliament in July, he told a German MEP who had criticised him that the man should appear in a film as a Nazi concentration camp guard.

Berlusconi said the remark was meant as a joke and later expressed “regret.” but did not apologise.