Patrizia D'Addario says Berlusconi offered her a seat in the European Parliament

[He3]

The escort at the centre of a sex scandal involving Silvio Berlusconi has said the Italian prime minister offered her a seat in the European Parliament.

Patrizia D'Addario told the BBC the plan was abandoned by his party, People of Freedom, after his wife complained.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Italy PM 'offered escort EU seat'

[He3]

And Colm Burke thinks he was hard done by.

"They asked me for my CV, I gave them my CV. Giampaolo Tarantini took my CV," Ms D'Addario told the BBC.

"The next day, Giampaolo Tarantini's secretary called me and said: 'Look, right now Tarantini is with the prime minister and there's been a problem with the prime minister's wife, Veronica Lario. You can't be a candidate anymore.'

"'Veronica Lario is angry, so let's postpone this whole thing with the European Parliament and the actresses and starlets.'"

So it goes.

[wombat]

[I]The escort at the centre of a sex scandal involving Silvio Berlusconi has said the Italian prime minister offered her a seat in the European Parliament.

All Cowen could rise to was Pat the Cope

[He3]

From the same report -

Neither the Italian foreign ministry nor the prime minister's office were available on Friday for comment on Ms D'Addario's allegations.

Early start to the weekend?

[jackryan]

I read recently that he will be visiting Padre Pio's Shrine soon so as to clean up his image!

On the one hand I'd be so embarrassed 2 have him as PM while on the other hand at least he gives a great comedy show.

[baldur0300]

[Mod]Moved to Foreign Affairs[/Mod]

[Endoftheworldasweknowit]

All Cowen could rise to was Pat the Cope

Things could be an awful lot worse

[He3]

Things could be an awful lot worse

They could indeed.

Signora Berlusconi might not have intervened.

[Gadfly]

The Bart Simpson defence is in full swing: I didn't do it. Nobody saw me do it. You can't prove anything.

Unfortunately, the lady had a tape recorder, and the transcripts are here, in Italian:

Silvio e Patrizia, tutte le registrazioni | L'espresso

Among other things our modest hero boasts about becoming the only person to chair the G8 three times, and delighting in the fact that no one will ever beat this: Ora sono in-su-pe-ra-bi-le!

a partire dal primo di gennaio sono il responsabile dell'organismo internazionale che governerà l'economia del mondo [...] che si chiama ora G8, poi sarà G14 con dentro India, Cina, Sud Africa, Messico , Egitto, Brasile. E poi G16... E io dovrò andare in tutti questi paesi e per un anno dare l'avvio alla gestione dell'economia mondiale che non si è reso possibile...Per cui è un organo che raccoglie i leader dell'80 per cento dell'economia che devono decidere di applicare le leggi dell'economia in un momento complesso di crisi...Io per avventura...io sono l'unico al mondo che ha presieduto due volte nel 1994 e nel 2002, non c'è nessun altro che ha presieduto due volte...Siccome si va a sedici, uno deve stare lì, e si fa un anno ciascuno, ora sono in-su-pe-ra-bi-le...tre volte! ed è un grande risultato per l'Italia...

[He3]

un grande risultato per l'Italia.

Wonderful.

Next when he gets around to commenting on her claim about being offered a place in the European Parliament I suppose he could say he was just an old fashioned gentleman, offering a lady a seat....