A few weeks ago, Silvio Berlusconi was being accused of consorting with minors. Now the allegation in the Italian papers is that he consorted with prostitutes.
Whatever the truth about these strongly-denied stories, Berlusconi – now in his seventies – has never made a secret of his liking for young women. I once went to a dinner he gave in Rome for European journalists. He ensured that all the prettiest women were seated at his table. One young woman, who had evidently missed the journalism-school lecture about “not getting too close to your sources”, ended up sitting on Berlusconi’s lap.
Many Italians find their prime minister’s behaviour acutely embarrassing. One commentator on the BBC this morning groaned that it is like “having Benny Hill as prime minister”.
I sympathise. But I also think that Berlusconi is representative of something broader in Italian culture. If you watch Italian television it seems to be absolutely stuffed with game shows, full of giggling scantily-clad models who are being leched over by much older (and often shorter) men. Even my children noticed, when we were living in Brussels and had a TV service that picked up channels from all over Europe. If we ever came across a show with girls in swimming suits, surrounded by old men, my kids would chorus – “Rai Uno”. And that’s not even one of the Berlusconi channels.
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