I have no wish to resign – Italy PM Berlusconi

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi does not intend stepping down after lurid new revelations about his sex life spawned opposition calls for him to quit, his designated successor Angelino Alfano said earlier this week.

“Berlusconi has no wish whatsoever to resign,” Mr Alfano said.

PDL secretary general Mr Alfano said the government had a five-year mandate “as stated in the Constitution”.

Only the resignation of the Prime Minister or a censure vote by Parliament can end a term prematurely, he said, adding that the government had received the backing of the Parliament only this week.

Mr Berlusconi is scheduled to end his third term in office in 2013.

Mr Alfano said he was sure the Italian right could win the vote in two years’ time but that they needed to address non- and floating voters “to explain their plans” versus those of the left.

Opposition parties called on Saturday for Mr Berlusconi to quit over phone transcripts in which he boasts of his popularity with women.

“There were 11 of them, but I only did eight because I couldn’t do any more,” he is quoted as saying in one excerpt published by Italian media.

In another, he is quoted talking with Marysthell Polanco, a young dancer from the Dominican Republic. Apologising for not being able to spend much time with the performer, he said: “You know, Marysthell, in my spare time I’m the Prime Minister.”

The transcripts form key evidence in an investigation led by prosecutors in Bari, southern Italy, against eight people suspected of providing Mr Berlusconi with dozens of young women in 2008 and 2009 in order to win lucrative contracts, including with aerospace firm Finmeccanica.

A Naples court has meanwhile requested to hear from Mr Berlusconi as the “victim” in an alleged blackmail case in which the transcripts also feature.

Businessman Gianpaolo Tarantini and party newspaper boss Valter Lavitola are accused of extorting €850,000 from Mr Berlusconi to lie to Bari prosecutors.

Mr Berlusconi declared last Friday that he had done nothing to be ashamed of, writing in a letter to the head of the daily Il Foglio newspaper Giuliano Ferrara that “there has been a villainous attempt to turn my private life into a crime”.