Former Italian premier Silvio
Berlusconi on Monday said his claim that Germans still deny the
existence of Nazi concentration camps "was extrapolated out of
context" by "the European left", and affirmed his "historic
friendship with the Jewish people and the State of Israel".
Berlusconi, long known for verbal gaffs, refused to
apologize and said that he was a victim of political opponents
who set a "campaign trap" to ensnare him ahead of European
parliamentary elections on May 25.
Controversy erupted when, over the weekend, the media
magnate and centre-right leader said that "for the Germans, the
concentration camps never existed," in a fresh attack on an old
foe, Martin Schulz, the German head of the European Parliament
and centre-left candidate to become the next European Commission
president.
The 77-year-old Berlusconi, who has been smarting after an
Italian court upheld his ban on standing for election to the
European parliament due to a tax-fraud conviction, had clashed
before with Schulz, leader of the Progressive Alliance of
Socialists and Democrats.
During an angry exchange between the two in June 2003,
Berlusconi described Schulz as a guard in a Nazi death camp.
On Monday, Berlusconi refused to back down from his
comments about Germans, saying he had "no need to apologize
either to Holocaust survivors or to German citizens".
In an interview for Piazzapulita to be aired Monday evening
on the La7 television channel, he said it was "surreal to call
me hostile to the German people, my friends".
Instead, Berlusconi said his frustration was with
German-led fiscal austerity.
"If I'm hostile to something it's counterproductive
austerity, and rules and regulations that in my opinion are
seriously flawed, which are burdening all of Europe with
long-term economic stagnation," he added.
Berlusconi sparked a similar storm late last year when he
said his adult children had told him they feel they way Jewish
families must have felt under Hitler because of the alleged
judicial persecution against the ex-premier.
The ex-premier was quickly lambasted by prominent members
of Italy's Jewish community, who denounced comparisons of his
wealthy family with the Jewish people under the persecution of
Hitler.
Berlusconi's list of current legal woes is lengthy: the
year of community service from his tax-fraud conviction, which
also carries a ban from office; he is appealing a six-year
sentence for sex with an underage prostitute and abuse of power
to cover it up; and he is on trial for allegedly bribing a
centre-left Senator to switch sides.
Throughout more than 20 legal cases since he first swept to
victory in 1994, Berlusconi has said he is the victim of
left-wing elements in the judiciary.
Meanwhile, a darker image ex-premier was being presented in
a courtroom in the southern Italian city of Bari where
magistrates said "a disconcerting picture" of a prostitution
ring including Berlusconi had been revealed.
The statement was made in a Bari court's explanation of a
December 2013 guilty verdict and one-year sentence against
lawyer Salvatore Castellaneta for organizing 21 "bunga bunga"
sex parties for Berlusconi from September 2008 to May 2009 in
which 26 young women were "recruited".
Berlusconi is not on trial in that case and says he never
paid anyone for sex.
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