Centre-right Forza Italia (FI)
leader Silvio Berlusconi on Thursday said he had never
"insulted" the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) and had
"only made a quip about none of them filing incomes returns".
He said he thought this was "risible compared to what they
said about me, that I am the absolute evil".
Berlusconi was answering a question about centre-right leader
Matteo Salvini, of the anti-migrant Euroskeptic League, who
guaranteed there would be no more insults against the M5S from
the centre right.
Former premier and media magnate Berlusconi recently said the
M5S would only be up to "cleaning the bogs at Mediaset", his
media empire.
On Wednesday he compared them to Hitler.
Berlusconi said Thursday that the language of M5S leader
Luigi Di Maio is "worrying, he wants to attack a political
adversary in his private activity and patrimony, like
1970s-style proletarian expropriation, he is a danger for
democracy and freedom".
Berlusconi rejected Di Maio's contention that his
TV stations were biased in his favour, allegedly highlighting a
conflict of interests.
Describing Di Maio's charge as "very serious", Berlusconi
said "there is no commercial possibility" that media company
Mediaset "can take someone's side because it would eliminate the
others from its audience".
The media magnate turned politician, who owns Italy's three
largest commercial TV stations, said "I complain that (Mediaset)
is always with everyone and a bit less with us, so as not to be
a biased television".
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