| ID | 104310 |
| Title Proper | Bunga Bunga no more |
| Other Title Information | Berlusconi takes a bath |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Flamini, Roland |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | What's with these Italians? Every day Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi sinks deeper into a mire of sex scandal that portrays him, at seventy-five, as a partying old man fighting a rear-guard action on behalf of his libido. He has been on television, not to tell the nation how his government plans to deal with Italy's precarious public finances and anemic growth rate, but to denounce as defamatory charges against him of sex with an underage prostitute, and to insist that he has never paid for sex in his life.The episode involving Moroccan night club dancer Karima el-Mahroug-better known as Ruby the Heartstealer (in Italian, it's Ruby Ruba-cuori)-is only the latest in a string of racy stories about Berlusconi's private life, involving parties with young women at his various homes. In short, like the Italian male stereotype (as in, for example, Dino Risi's 1962 cult movie Il sorpasso), Berlusconi loves the ladies. But Ruby was seventeen when he is supposed to have paid her for sex; so in May (postponed from April because of commitments of state, like the Libya situation), he goes on trial in a Milan court. The age of consent in Italy is fourteen, but paying a prostitute who is under eighteen is a criminal offense. |
| `In' analytical Note | World Affairs US Vol. 174, No. 1; May/June 2011: p.71-77 |
| Journal Source | World Affairs US Vol. 174, No. 1; May/June 2011: p.71-77 |
| Key Words | Bunga Bunga No More ; Berlusconi |