Nearly half of Italians want Silvio Berlusconi out – poll

Nearly half of Italians want embattled Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is embroiled in yet another sex scandal, to resign, according to a poll carried by the leading Corriere della Serra daily on Sunday.

Forty-nine per cent of 600people surveyed between Wednesday and Thursday said the 74-year-old Premier should quit, while 45 per cent disagreed.

Mr Berlusconi has so far managed to cling to the support of his key allies despite charges by Milan prosecutors that he consorted with prostitutes and other women he kept in rent-free luxury apartments, as well as accusations that he paid for sex with an underage disco dancer named Ruby.

While frequenting prostitutes is not a crime in Italy, having sex with one under the age of 18 has been an imprisonable offence since Mr Berlusconi’s right-wing government voted a law against it in 2006.

The Corriere della Serra said the sex scandal appears to have little impact on the standing of the various parties among voters, with Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party retaining 30 per cent support.

The only tangible effect, it added, has been “mounting (public) estrangement from politics”.

Milan’s prosecutors revealed their investigation last Friday, just a day after a top court partially stripped the prime minister of political immunity and experts warned the scandal might force the government to early elections.

The opposition PD party said it will start petitioning for Mr Berlusconi’s resignation and hopes to collect 10 million signatures from disgruntled Italians.

An open letter yet to be released condemns the Prime Minister for “dishonouring Italy in the eyes of the world” when “Italy needs to look onwards to finally face up to its (other) problems”.

But Mr Berlusconi’s key political ally Umberto Bossi – head of the anti-immigrant and populist Northern League Party and his partner in the centre-right coalition – came to his aid.

“In a normal, democratic country these things don’t happen, you don’t put a person under pressure in this way. He’s the Prime Minister, not the Mafia!” Mr Bossi said on Friday.

The fragmented left and centre parties have long called for the prime minister to resign, but Mr Berlusconi seems to lead a charmed life, scraping through a confidence vote in parliament last month.

He accused the Milan magistrates of using their investigation for political ends and employing highly sophisticated technology to spy on his guests as if they were hunting the Mafia.