Silvio Berlusconi planned to make his alleged “madam” a member of Italy’s national Parliament, according to wiretap transcripts published a day before the start of the most lurid trial he has faced so far.
The transcripts emerged against a background of rising tension over the case. Adversaries of the prime minister were planning demonstrations in Rome as the Parliament braced for a vote on whether to ask the constitutional court to scrap the trial, in which Berlusconi is accused of paying an underage prostitute and then abusing his position to cover up the alleged offence.
One of the transcripts is a conversation said to be between him and Nicole Minetti, an Anglo-Italian former showgirl who emerged from obscurity as a dental hygienist to become a member of Lombard regional assembly representing Berlusconi’s party. She is currently under investigation along with two other people on suspicion of aiding and abetting prostitution, including juvenile prostitution.
Documents sent to Parliament by the prosecutors earlier this year suggested that the three procured a stream of young women for dinners at Berlusconi’s mansion near Milan followed by so-called “bunga bunga” sessions. According to the prosecutors, the women — some masked, others wearing police officers’ or nurses’ uniforms — performed erotic dances, at the end of which Berlusconi chose “one or more” with whom to spend the night.
According to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera last August, Berlusconi was recorded by police as telling Minetti: “Everyone is speaking so well of you, darling. Everyone. The [Northern] League people. Our people … So then, when there are elections, you’ll come into Parliament.”
Berlusconi’s charity
The wiretaps, published by the newspaper, also contained evidence that Berlusconi secured auditions for his young guests. On October 4, he is alleged to have taken a call at his Rome residence from María Ester García Polanco, an aspiring Dominican showgirl.
“I’m in Rome”, she tells him. “Lord! I’ve come to do the audition with [a noted TV, film and theatre director]. You remember?”
“Yes”, Berlusconi replies, according to the transcript. “The one I got for you. No?”
“Yes, darling”, says García Polanco, laughing.
Berlusconi remarks that he has been asked — it is unclear by whom — whether she could “do a few numbers” for his own channels, which are managed by his son by his first marriage, Pier Silvio. “I’m trying to convince my son,” the prime minister adds.
Showgirls are not the only purported beneficiaries of Berlusconi’s charity. According to another daily, La Repubblica, the prosecutors will also submit evidence to show that a 28-year-old television reporter on one of Berlusconi’s channels was paid more than €500 000 from accounts registered in the name of either the TV magnate or his accountant. Police allegedly established that the reporter, who is well known to Italian viewers, was a guest at the prime minister’s home on at least one occasion in 2010.
Publication of the wiretaps is bound to prompt a storm of protest from Berlusconi’s followers, one of whom has tabled a bill to prevent transcripts being included in court papers. Even under present legislation, however, conversations involving a member of parliament ought not to have been inserted in the prosecution’s submission, which becomes publicly accessible once an inquiry is closed.
Berlusconi denies all wrongdoing. – guardian.co.uk