Thousands of women rally against Berlusconi

Tens of thousands of women took to the streets of Italian cities yesterday in protest against scandal-hit Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, as a key rival launched a scathing attack on the embattled leader.

Organisers said the rallies were prompted by Mr Berlusconi’s alleged liaisons with prostitutes and lurid media coverage of the scandals, but also aimed to draw attention to wider problems for women’s rights in Italian society.

“Enough!” chanted some of the tens of thousands of protesters who crowded into Rome’s Piazza del Popolo square, including many men and entire families.

In Naples, a sign held up during a march there read: “No Bunga Bunga!” – a reference to the alleged orgies held by the Prime Minister in his residences.

“We’re here to say that Italian women are not all like Berlusconi’s prostitutes. It’s a horrible image that we’re giving. We’ve become a joke in the rest of the world,” said Maria Rosa Veritta, a protester in Milan.

Signs held up at the Rome protest read: “Indignant!” and “Don’t call me a prostitute, I’m a slave!”

Many protesters waved pink flags and wore pink hats.

“We are defending the dignity of women,” read a placard held up in Palermo.

There were also two small protests in solidarity in Brussels and Tokyo.

Protesters in Brussels held up placards reading: “We are not for sale”, “You have to leave now” and “100 per cent Italian, 0 per cent Berlusconian”.

The women’s protests were organised by sisters Francesca and Cristina Comencini, both actresses, who argue that Mr Berlusconi’s playboy antics and his sexist comments are part of a problem of misogynism in Italian society.

“Neither right-wing governments, nor left-wing ones have ever done anything,” Cristina Comencini said at the protest.

She also criticised “discrimination in the job market due to a lack of day-nurseries, family helpers and part-time jobs.”

Italy has one of the lowest birth rates in Europe at 1.4 children per family and only one woman in two works – compared to 59 per cent in the EU – despite women being, on average, better educated than men.

The Italian leader’s scandals have added to the resentment.

Mr Berlusconi is fighting off allegations that he paid for sex with a 17-year-old prostitute nicknamed Ruby the Heartstealer, real name Karima El Mahroug and then used the power of his office to try and cover up the crime.

Many have been offended in the way the Italian leader has defended himself.

“I have never paid a woman,” Mr Berlusconi said in one interview last year.

“I have never seen the satisfaction that there could be in it without the pleasure of conquest,” he said.

And in a speech in November he remarked: “It’s better to be passionate about beautiful women than to be gay.”

Mr Berlusconi’s supporters have condemned the rallies.

“The women taking to the streets today are not very numerous and are rallying only for political ends,” Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini said.

Fabrizio Cicchitto, a member of Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party, said participants “belong to the leftist anti-Berlusconi movement.”

More than 50,000 women have signed the movement’s manifesto in just a week.