Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was nursing a broken nose yesterday after an assault at a political rally that raised doubts over the competence of his security detail.
Sunday's attack "proves in a worrying way that the system for protecting the head of government is not effective and has gaps in it," said lawmaker Carmelo Briguglio, a member of a parliamentary security panel.
A spokesman for Mr Berlusconi, 73, said a "climate of hatred" had contributed to the attack allegedly by a man with a history of mental problems following a political rally in Milan.
Paolo Bonaiuti said the flamboyant leader had recently complained to him: "There's such a spiral of hatred, do you think something might happen?"
Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, for his part, said Mr Berlusconi's security detail was "beyond reproach".
World leaders including French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Russian and British prime ministers Vladimir Putin and Gordon Brown and Pope Benedict XVI sent condolences over the attack. Mr Berlusconi's doctor Alberto Zangrillo said he would need about three weeks to recover from the assault.
The alleged assailant, 42-year-old Massimo Tartaglia, hurled a heavy replica of Milan's gothic cathedral at Mr Berlusconi, leaving the Prime Minister with two broken teeth and a fat lip as well as the broken nose.
"We will review the situation again tomorrow (Tuesday) and decide whether or not he can leave," Dr Zangrillo said outside Milan's San Raffaele Hospital.
"The consequences are worse than expected, and he won't be able to leave for another 24 or 36 hours," Dr Zangrillo said in televised remarks.
Mr Berlusconi's first request yesterday was to see the front-page coverage of the attack that newspapers said highlighted political tensions in the country.
Pictures of Mr Berlusconi's bloodied face dominated the Italian press, with even media that oppose the conservative Prime Minister condemning the incident.
The left-wing daily La Repubblica said the attack "highlights the degradation of the political climate in Italy".
"Friends and enemies, partisans and opponents must show solidarity" with Mr Berlusconi, a media tycoon who is among Italy's richest people. "What is at stake is nothing less than liberty," it said.
Mr Tartaglia's father, "upset" over the attack, tried to telephone Mr Berlusconi in hospital but could not get through, the Ansa news agency reported.
At the rally of Mr Berlusconi's People of Freedom party on Sunday, scuffles broke out after about 10 people heckled him, calling him a "clown".
Mr Berlusconi, who is battling revelations over his private life and divisions within his centre-right coalition, shouted back at them "shame on you".
Leading daily Corriere della Sera said there is a "poisoned climate" in Italy. "Political hate is a monster which when unleashed is difficult to control," the paper wrote in an editorial.
Mr Berlusconi, who began his third stint as Prime Minister in May 2008, said he would not bow to mounting pressure to go to the polls early. Allegations about dalliances with younger women led his wife Veronica Lario to file for divorce.
Mr Berlusconi's attendance at the 18th birthday party of aspiring model Noemi Letizia was the last straw for his wife, who is reportedly seeking a settlement of €43 million a year. Last week he dismissed accusations of Mafia ties made by a turncoat criminal at an Italian court.
In October Italy's top court quashed an amnesty law that would have benefitted the prime minister, who faces corruption charges. On Friday a Milan court adjourned one of the trials against him until January 15. The Prime Minister faces allegations that he paid his British former tax lawyer, David Mills, 600,000 dollars to give false evidence in two trials in the 1990s.