Silvio Berlusconi has said that
the application of a 2012 anti-corruption law that led to him
being ejected from parliament last year was "sacrilege".
He also said that there was no need for a pact with
Premier Matteo Renzi over the election of the next Italian
president, because his party's approval was needed for any
candidate to succeed, according to excerpts of an interview in a
new book by Italian journalist Bruno Vespa that have been
released in advance.
Berlusconi has always argued that the anti-corruption law
was applied to him retroactively following a tax fraud
conviction.
The law was adopted before the supreme court upheld the
conviction, although the original sentence predates it.
Berlusconi reiterated that he is confident that the
European Court of Human Rights will overturn the conviction for
tax fraud on the trading of film rights by his media empire.
He also repeated his assertion that the fall of the last
of his three governments in 2011, during the peak of the
eurozone crisis, was the result of "a quiet coup".
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