Are there any women left in Europe that Berlusconi hasn’t somehow offended? He reportedly called German Chancellor Angela Merkel a vulgar insult in a conversation with an Italian journalist, and while nobody knows exactly what was said, rumors flew that he called the 71-year-old an “unfuckable lard ass.” The conversation was picked up by authorities who are investigating Berlusconi’s alleged role in a $1 million extortion plot. Berlusconi did not comment about the allegations, but a paper owned by him, Il Giornale, described the allegation as “gossip.
In a taped conversation with an alleged blackmailer, Berlusconi lashed out at his country, saying “I'm leaving this shitty country of which I'm sickened.” Berlusconi was speaking with the editor of a small newspaper, one of three people accused of extorting €500,000 (or $710,000) from him. Giampaolo Tarantini, another member of the group, says he supplied 30 women for parties at Berlusconi's Roman palazzo. "They can say about me that I screw,” Berlusconi told his alleged blackmailer. “It's the only thing they can say about me.”
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Berlusconi didn’t know his phone was bugged when he asked Gianpaolo Taratina, a businessman who often brought him escorts, to deliver girls for one of his infamous bunga-bunga sex parties at his mansion. He asked Taratina “not to bring tall girls, as we are not tall.” In another recorded conversation, Berlusconi bragged about “having been with eight [girls] in one night, even though I could have had 11.”
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At a meeting of the European Parliament in 2003, Berlusconi lost his cool with a German member of the Parliament and compared him to a Nazi concentration-camp collaborator. “I know that in Italy there is a man producing a film on Nazi concentration camps,” Berlusconi said. “I shall put you forward for the role of kapo—you would be perfect.” He apologized for the comment, but it wiped out the goodwill he had cultivated with a polished speech the day before.
It takes a special knack for outrage to turn damage control into a scandal of its own. Accused of soliciting an underage prostitute and having her bailed out of prison, Berlusconi defended himself by saying it is "better to be passionate about a beautiful girl than a gay." The statement prompted new calls for his resignation, this time from gay rights groups.
The world got a peek inside Berlusconi’s infamous bunga-bunga parties when a photographer snapped some pictures of the Czech delegation's reception at the prime minister’s Sardinian villa. The photos show topless women lounging by the pool and the former prime minister of the Czech Republic walking nearby, naked and erect. The photos also show Berlusconi using an Italian Air Force helicopter to transport guests around his compound.
Berlusconi is as blatant about his disreputable friendships as he is about his sexual shenanigans. In order to bail out Karima El Mahroug, the 17-year-old dancer he is accused of paying for sex, he claimed she was the granddaughter of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. And Mahroug—also known as Ruby—said Berlusconi learned his bunga-bunga ritual from none other than Muammar Gaddafi. Bunga-bunga is supposedly an underwater orgiastic ritual in which nude women encircle the prime minister in a swimming pool. Ruby said it was a rite of Gaddafi’s “African harem.”
In 2008, a hired escort secretly recorded her tryst with Berlusconi. He told her to wait for him on “the Putin” bed, referring to the bed with a handmade quilt that the Russian prime minister gave him as a gift. The conversation was revealed when a member of Berlusconi’s circle was investigated for paying girls to attend the prime minister’s parties.
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Days after Obama was elected America’s first African-American president in 2008, Berlusconi complimented him on his “good tan.” Never the master of subtlety, he was unfazed by the criticism and went on to tell supporters in Milan that Barack and Michelle “went together to get some sun at the beach, because the wife is also tanned.”
In 2009, tens of thousands were made homeless after a 5.8 magnitude earthquake hit the city of L’Aquila in central Italy. Berlusconi failed to convey his sympathies, outraging locals by telling reporters that the victims had everything they need and should “see it like a weekend camping.”
