Women like men to seduce them, says Berlusconi
Former Italian premier backs campaign that says anti-sexual harassment crusade has gone too far
WOMEN should be happy if a man tries to seduce them, according to Silvio Berlusconi.
The former Italian prime minister, who is attempting a return to politics, yesterday waded into the sexual harassment debate provoked by the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
The media magnate, who was convicted and later acquitted of paying for sex with an under-age escort nicknamed Ruby the Heart Stealer, spoke out in support of comments made this week by Catherine Deneuve.
The French actress was one of 100 women to sign a letter in Le Monde defending a man’s right to steal a kiss or touch a knee, saying the harassment campaign had become “puritanical” and fuelled by a “hatred of men”.
“Catherine Deneuve spoke blessed words,” said Mr Berlusconi, 81.
“It’s natural that women are happy if a man tries to seduce them,” he said in a television interview. “I don’t have much experience with this because it’s always women who try to seduce me. The important thing is that the courtship is elegant.”
The octogenarian has, over the years, repeatedly boasted of his way with women. In 2011 he said: “When asked if they would like to have sex with me, 30 per cent of women said, ‘yes’, while the other 70 replied, ‘What, again?’”
After separating from his long-suffering wife, Veronica Lario, a former actress, Mr Berlusconi threw himself into a tempestuous year of hosting “bunga bunga” parties at his residence in Milan and his summer villa in Sar- dinia. He later settled down, however, with a former shop assistant from Naples who is half a century younger than him.
Francesca Pascale, 32, described how she became determined to woo the former premier when she met him while working for his centre-right party.
In an interview with the Italian edition of Vanity Fair in 2013, she claimed that she had fallen for the billionaire businessman when she was a teenager, offering him her telephone number at a party rally.
“I chased him, I wooed him – I did everything. All he had to do was say ’yes’,” she said.
Mr Berlusconi is leading a centreright coalition, consisting of his own Forza Italia party and two others, which hopes to win power in Italy’s general election on March 4.
Much as he would love to be prime minister again, he is barred from public office as a result of a conviction for tax fraud.