Politico Incorrenct – Silvio Berlusconi’s Love Letters
TRY to purge from your mind those oily portraits of a young Cherie Blair working as an artist’s model.
And instead get a load of Veronica Berlusconi. Has she not grace? Has she not chestnut hair? Has she not a magnificent pair of breasts which, for artistic purposes, she displays to good effect in a production of The Magnificent Cuckold at a Milan theatre?
That was 1981. And in the audience was Silvio Berlusconi, entrepreneur, football tycoon and latterly former political leader of Italy.
“I felt a flash of lightning,” says Berlusconi as he relives the moment in his mind’s eye. Veronica was to become his mistress and then his second wife.
But time changes people. And when a mistress becomes wife, a vacancy is created. And so it is that Berlusconi’s eyes begin to wander.
As the Times reports, he eyes up Mara Carfagna, 31, a former TV “showgirl” who, interestingly enough, is a deputy in Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party.
“Just look at her,” says Silvio, “if I were not married I would marry her in an instant.”
And then there is Aida Yespica, and, yes, she fascinates Silvio. “Aida works as a TV presenter. All women on Italian TV are shiny of hair and brilliant of tooth. Aida is no exception. Venezuelan-born dancer Aida Yespica is a former Miss Amazonia.
Aida tells Silvio she’d “love to go to a desert island with you”. Silvio flashes a deeper shade of tan. “I would go with you anywhere,” he replies.
Of course, this is all very Italian, stereotypically so. The idea of Tony Blair leaning over to Kirsty Wark on the BBC’s Newsnight and inviting her for a dirty weekend on the Isle of White is as revolting as it is unlikely. It is not only the viewers who would turn off.
But as we find a hint of something approaching admiration for the 70-year-old man who once entertained Tony and Cherie while dressed in a bandana, we hear from the affronted Veronica.
Slighted by her husband’s comments, she has written an open letter. And it has been published in La Repubblica newspaper.
The letter reads:
“I have faced the inevitable contrasts and the more painful moments which a long conjugal relationship brings with respect and discretion”
“I therefore ask my husband, and the public man he is, for a public apology since I have not received a private one, and I take this occasion even if, like the character of Catherine Dunne, I must consider myself to be ‘half of nothing’”
“During the course of my relationship with my husband I have not given space to conjugal conflict, even when his behaviour has been such as to merit it”
“Now that my daughters have reached adulthood, the example of a woman who is able to protect her own dignity in relationships with men assumes even more importance”
“I feel the defence of my dignity . . . may be of help to my son, so that he may never forget the fundamental value of respect towards women”
So much for the dutiful politician’s wife standing by her man at the gate to the family domicile, putting on a united front, keeping private things private.
And so much for the humble politico. Never one to shy away from the limelight, Berlusconi has issued a public letter of apology.
It reads: “Forgive me, I beg you. And take this public show of my private pride giving in to your fury as an act of love.”
And not the act of a randy geriatric…
Posted: 1st, February 2007 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
