Post by Admin on Jan 2, 2004 17:35:02 GMT
In quotes: Berlusconi in his own words
Berlusconi's loose tongue has often got him into trouble
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is well known for his tendency to make what one former Italian prime minister Massimo D'Alema has described as "planetary gaffes".
He is also prone to make out-of-place, and often lewd, jokes - which is said to be why his minders prevent journalists travelling with him.
Here is a selection of Berlusconi clangers:
To German MEP Martin Schulz, at start of Italy's EU presidency in July 2003:
"I know that in Italy there is a man producing a film on Nazi concentration camps - I shall put you forward for the role of Kapo (guard chosen from among the prisoners) - you would be perfect."
During the controversy raging over the above remark:
I'll try to soften it and become boring, maybe even very boring, but I am not sure I will be able to do it.
To a German newspaper:
In Italy I am almost seen as German for my workaholism. Also I am from Milan, the city where people work the hardest. Work, work, work - I am almost German.
At the Brussels summit, at the end of Italy's EU presidency, in December 2003:
"Let's talk about football and women." (Turning to four-times-married German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder.) "Gerhard, why don't you start?"
On Italian secretaries (comments made at the New York stock exchange):
"Italy is now a great country to invest in... today we have fewer communists and those who are still there deny having been one. Another reason to invest in italy is that we have beautiful secretaries... superb girls."
On Mussolini:
"Mussolini never killed anyone. Mussolini used to send people on vacation in internal exile."
On his trial, now suspended, in which he denies charges of bribing judges to prevent the sale of a state-owned food company to a rival:
"I believed and still believe that citizen Berlusconi should be praised for having prevented the state's wealth from being looted... I was expecting a Gold Medal for Civil Worthiness for ensuring the state earned 2,000bn [lire]"
On Danish PM Anders Fogh-Rasmussen:
"I think I should introduce him to my wife, because he is better-looking than (Massimo) Cacciari." [Mr Cacciari is a former mayor of Venice rumoured to be romantically attached to Mrs Berlusconi.]
On himself:
"The best political leader in Europe and in the world."
"There is no-one on the world stage who can compete with me."
"Out of love for Italy, I felt I had to save it from the left."
"The right man in the right job."
"I don't need to go into office for the power. I have houses all over the world, stupendous boats... beautiful airplanes, a beautiful wife, a beautiful family... I am making a sacrifice."
A joke about Aids told by Mr Berlusconi:
An Aids patient asks his doctor whether the sand treatment prescribed him will do any good. "No," the doctor replies, "but you will get accustomed to living under the earth."
His response to critics who said the joke was offensive:
"They have lost their minds; they really have come to the end of the line, indeed they have gone beyond it. I would advise them, too, to undergo sand treatment..."
On his conflict of interest as prime minister and one of Italy's biggest tycoons, with major media holdings:
"If I, taking care of everyone's interests, also take care of my own, you can't talk about a conflict of interest."
On a proposal to base an EU food standards agency in Finland, rather than the Italian city of Parma:
"Parma is synonymous with good cuisine. The Finns don't even know what prosciutto is. I cannot accept this."
On history:
"The founders of Rome were Romulus and Remulus ..."
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