THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Silvio Berlusconi, the president of Italy, has launched a bizarre personal attack on his opponents accusing them of not "washing themselves enough."Mr Berlusconi, 74, who has been charged with having underage sex with a prostitute, accused the centre left of being smelly as tensions rose ahead of local elections this weekend.
The billionaire media tycoon is currently involved in four separate trials with charges also including abuse of office and corruption. The the election was being seen as a test of his popularity.
During a final rally in the southern Italian city of Crotone, Berlusconi said: "The leaders of the Left don't wash themselves much. When they go into the bathroom, and they don't go often since they don't wash much, they look in the mirror when they shave and surprise themselves."
Mr Berlusconi has a reputation for disliking beards, seeing them as sign of left leaning political sympathies. His obsession with hygiene has also emerged from intercepts of his infamous "bunga bunga" parties.
The phrase is said to refer to a crude after-dinner sex game and from the wire taps girls invited to the parties reveal how Berlusconi asked them to wash before performing sexy stripteases and lap dances for him. » | Nick Pisa in Rome | Saturday, May 14, 2011
