Faced with a tottering economy and a crumbling coalition government, Silvio Berlusconi has chosen to woo a youth rally with jokes about Adolf Hitler and his own sexual prowess.
Appearing relaxed, if a little pale, before a crowd of cheering supporters on Sunday, the frequently outspoken and gaffe-prone Italian prime minister promised to see out the end of his term, despite losing his guaranteed majority after a split with an ally, Gianfranco Fini.
Putting politics aside, he then launched into a series of anecdotes and apparent jokes which promptly drew accusations of anti-Semitism and even mental instability from opposition politicians.
The former cruise ship entertainer told a joke in which Adolf Hitler is begged by his supporters to return to power after they discover he is still alive. After resisting, Hitler says: “I’ll come back, but on one condition … next time I’m going to be evil.”
Fabio Evangelisti, a member of Parliament for the opposition Italy of Values party, demanded Berlusconi apologise to Israel and the Italian Jewish community. The party’s leader, Antonio Di Pietro, said: “At this point the problem is not political or judicial, but psychiatric.”
Turning his attention to the economy, Berlusconi jokingly advised young Italians to marry into money, adding: “I have a daughter who is free to marry.”
I know how to do ‘it’
Now separated from his wife following the scandal over his friendship with the teenage model Noemi Letizia, Berlusconi said he was also an eligible candidate for four reasons: “I am friendly, I have money, legend has it I know how to do ‘it’, and lastly because girls think: ‘He’s old and rich, he will die soon and I will inherit everything.'”
The poor performance over the weekend of AC Milan, the football club he controls, was down to a leftwing referee disallowing goals, Berlusconi joked.
The impromptu speech followed a visit to Russia on Friday, where he surprised the audience at a conference on democracy with a fierce attack on Italian magistrates he claims are hounding him. He said of Vladimir Putin: “I have never had any doubts that he is anything less than democratically minded.”
Berlusconi (73) has previously been criticised for calling Barack Obama “young, handsome and tanned”, and last year for leaving Angela Merkel waiting to greet him at a conference while he made a call on his cellphone.
Despite the criticism, Berlusconi claimed he was “a respected statesman who is praised at international summits for his background as a tycoon, his 16 years of political experience and the content of his proposals”.
He said he had learned from Margaret Thatcher not to waste time reading negative coverage of himself in newspapers. The former British prime minister, he said, had told him that her press secretary only showed her positive articles about her. – guardian.co.uk