Silvio Berlusconi: A Global Embarrassment???

Opponents of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi have called for him to quit over phone transcripts in which he boasts of his popularity with women, as his camp hit out at the intrusion into his private life. The transcripts form key evidence in an investigation led by prosecutors in Bari, southern Italy, against eight people suspected of providing Berlusconi with dozens of young women in 2008 and 2009 in order to win lucrative contracts, including with aerospace firm Finmeccanica. Al Jazeera‘s Claudio Lavanga reporting from Rome says this incident is bound to be embarrassing to the leader – “even for someone prone to scandals as he is”.

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