ROME, (Reuters) – Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, after months of dismissing accusations of cavorting with teenagers and prostitutes, yesterday acknowledged he was “no saint” but vowed to govern until the end of his mandate.
In his first public remarks since newspapers posted audio recordings of intimate conversations purportedly between him and an escort, a defiant Berlusconi sought to write off the scandal with one of his trademark quips.
“There are tonnes of good-looking girls and entrepreneurs out there,” he said at the opening ceremony for a new motorway building site.
“I am not a saint, you’ve all understood that. I hope those at La Repubblica also understand it,” he said, referring to the left-leaning daily which has led demands that he clear up aspects of his personal life.
Speaking of new public works to be inaugurated in 2013 — when his mandate ends — he said: “We will all still be around, because how could Italians do without us?”.
The websites of La Repubblica and the weekly magazine L’Espresso have posted recordings of conversations they said were between Berlusconi and Patrizia D’Addario, an escort who says she and other women were paid to attend parties at Berlusconi’s residence in Rome.
While Berlusconi’s comments offered no specific admission, they did appear to be a change of tack in dealing with the scandal, particularly after newspapers around the world reprinted the transcripts in full or in part.
On Monday, his lawyer Niccolo Ghedini branded the tapes “totally unlikely and the product of the imagination” and warned that it was illegal to post or publish them.
Although Berlusconi has tried to make light of the controversy surrounding his private life, the possible political ramifications have been lurking in the background.
An opinion poll published on Tuesday showed his approval rating falling below 50 percent for the first time since he won a landslide election victory last year.
The poll showed that Berlusconi had lost four percentage points since May, when his wife filed for divorce, setting off a chain of disclosures about his private life.