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D’Addario Denies PM’s Accusation of Acting on Orders

Prime minister: “I have never paid a woman. If I’d known she was an escort, I’d have chased her away at once”

ROME – “Behind the Bari inquiry is someone who gave this Ms D’Addario precise and very well-paid orders”. In an exclusive interview with Chi magazine, the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, commented on the investigation launched by the Bari public prosecutor’s office and spoke about the woman at the centre of the inquiry. “I have never paid a woman. I’ve never understood what the satisfaction is without the pleasure of making a conquest”, he added. “Didn’t you realise that she might be a high-class call girl setting a trap?” the interviewer, Chi’s editor Alfonso Signorini, asked the premier. “If I suspected that of anyone, I’d keep a thousand miles away from them”, replied Mr Berlusconi.

DENIAL IN RESPONSE – Later, Patrizia D’Addario replied to the prime minister’s claims in a note sent to press agencies. Bari-born Ms D’Addario, who revealed she had made two paid visits to Mr Berlusconi’s Rome residence, and on one had spent the night with the premier, said: “In an interview granted to a weekly magazine, the prime minister, referring to me, asserts that ‘there is someone who has given this woman very precise and extremely well-paid orders’. I deny that this took place”. Ms D’Addario then invites “Mr Berlusconi, should he be in possession of the slightest bit of evidence to support his assertion, to forward it to the judicial authorities”. She concludes: “If this should not be the case, I would ask him to refrain from making such assertions”. Yesterday evening, a lawyer acting for one of the other women alleged to be involved, Maria Teresa (“Terry”) De Nicoḷ, issued a statement to say: “Reports that my client is under investigation for criminal offences linked to the inquiry are without foundation, and in fact no charges have been formulated against her”. In the meantime, Bari magistrates continue to investigate. Currently, attention is focused on the parties in Cortina.

TARANTINI – In his interview with Chi, the premier also mentioned Gianpaolo Tarantini, the businessman at the centre of the Bari magistrates’ inquiry into health-sector backhanders and a prostitution ring. “I believe in civil rights so I am withholding judgement. I met him last summer in Sardinia. He was introduced to me as a serious, well-respected businessman”, the premier went on. “Now that he is under investigation, I think that the presumption of innocence should hold true for him as it does for any Italian citizen involved in judicial process”.

SEARCHES – During the course of the interview, Mr Berlusconi also touched on the role of the secret services and the photographs at Villa Certosa. “I think the intelligence services have more serious issues to deal with than Zappadu’s photos”, he said ironically. “None of my guests has ever been subjected to a body search. If anyone has abused my courtesy and good faith to violate my privacy, it reflects discredit on them, not me”.

“NOTHING TO APOLOGISE FOR” - “I have nothing to apologise to anyone for. There is nothing in my private life I need to apologise for”, said Mr Berlusconi, taking the opportunity to point out that “on the other hand, there are plenty of people, including the publishers and editors of Italy’s leading dailies, who should be ashamed and should apologise to me. Of course, they won’t. They’ll lose credibility and readers”, he added.

“VERONICA? A WOUND” – The premier also talked about his private life and for the first time, as Chi magazine points out in the advance copy of the interview, discussed his separation from Veronica Lario. “It’s been a very painful wound. I don’t know if time will heal it”. He went on: “What is beyond doubt is that we had a great love story. And great love stories never fade. I am at ease. Sad, but at ease”. In the interview with the Mondadori-group magazine, Mr Berlusconi also spoke about his “relationship with the children after the Bari investigation”. He said: “Pain inflicted by the mud they have tried to sling at us has brought us even closer together. The response of all my children in the face of the opposition leader’s incredible statement was my greatest joy for quite some time”. The interview adds that Mr Berlusconi is referring to Dario Franceschini’s rhetorical question during the election campaign: “Would you let Berlusconi educate you children?”

FIORELLO – Finally, the premier made a few brief comments on TV presenter Fiorello during the interview. According to Mr Berlusconi, the popular entertainer “simply forgot that he had said after our meeting that it was I who asked him to stay where he was. In public television. With the RAI”. Recently, Fiorello told Vanity Fair magazine: “Never again at Mediaset”.

English translation by Giles Watson

www.watson.it

Article in Italian

24 giugno 2009