return of Mussolini

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/8165004/Berlusconi-babes-fight-as-coalition-looks-shaky.html

Italy

Berlusconi babes fight as coalition looks shaky

As Italians wonder if the era of Silvio Berlusconi is coming to an end, the women he promoted fight between themselves

Alessandra Mussolini (left) and Mara Carfagna have been trading insults through the press Photo: REUTERS

By Nick Squires in Rome 6:14PM GMT 27 Nov 2010

He famously once declared that Left-wing Italian women were less attractive than their Right-wing counterparts. But having proved his point by packing his government with ex-beauty queens and showgirls, Silvio Berlusconi is discovering that good looks do not necessarily go with good tempers.

In the latest crisis to hit the scandal-ridden prime minister, his tottering centre-right coalition is under threat after a vicious catfight between two of his most glamourous female allies. In one corner is Mara Carfagna, 34, a former topless model who Mr Berlusconi - without any apparent sense of irony - appointed equal opportunities minister two years ago. And in the other is the fiery Alessandra Mussolini, 47, an MP who is not only the grand-daughter of the fascist dictator but also the niece of Sophia Loren.

The trouble started when Miss Mussolini, herself a former actress and two-time Playboy cover girl, took a photo on her mobile phone of Miss Carfagna talking in parliament to Italo Bocchino, a member of a group of rebel MPs who have split from Mr Berlusconi's coalition.

Miss Mussolini then distributed it to Italian newspapers, accusing Miss Carfagna of being a "traitor" to the government and of flirting with the rebels, who are loyal to Mr Berlusconi's main rival, Gianfranco Fini.

However, Miss Carfagna, who comes from the Campania region near Naples, gave as good as she got. Drawing on Naple's rich and earthy street dialect, which is so impenetrable to other Italians that it almost ranks as a different language, she hurled a choice insult, calling Miss Mussolini una vajassa.

The slur had Italians running to their dictionaries, where they found that it loosely translates as "screeching fishwife" - the kind of strident, pugnacious woman who hails from Naples' notoriously rundown, Mafia-ridden Spanish Quarter.

Miss Mussolini, a former MEP, was so offeneded that she has now threatened to boycott a crucial confidence vote in parliament next month, on which Mr Berlusconi's future depends, unless she receives a public apology from Miss Carfagna.

"I'm amazed that this comes from the minister for equal opportunities, it's really the pot calling the kettle black," the grand-daughter of Il Duce said.

Not content with that, she then rubbed salt into the wound by making a very public show of kissing a senior member of the government with whom Miss Carfagna has quarrelled – an implicit dig at the minister's alleged disloyalty. "It was only a political kiss, not a real smacker. There were no tongues," she added.

The unedifying spectacle, which has dominated Italian newspaper headlines all week, seems more worthy of a pair of bitchy schoolgirls in a playground scrap than a pair of adult parliamentarians. But it has underlined the escalating tensions within the camp of Mr Berlusconi, who was quoted in 2008 as saying that when he looked round parliament, he found that female politicians from the right were "more beautiful".

Aside from the spirited exchange of insults, Miss Carfagna made a couple of valid political points. She criticised the government's lacklustre response to the rubbish crisis in her home region of Campania, which has choked Naples with thousands of tons of festering filth and become an international embarrassment for Italy.

She also complained about the lack of debate within the government, accusing Mr Berlusconi of governing with "dictatorial methods" – a criticism that has been made before by several dissidents, who say the 73-year-old premier tries to run Italy like part of his multi-billion pound business empire.

Such was Miss Carfagna's dissatisfaction that early this week she announced her resignation as both a minister and an MP, amid rumours that she wanted to put herself forward as a future mayor of Naples.

After days of behind-the-scenes negotiations, Mr Berlusconi appeared to have sweet-talked her into staying. "It's all sorted out with Mara," he said on Thursday. "I spoke to her for two hours, she understood and she's not quitting,"

But making up with his former protégée is the least of the prime minister's worries. On Monday another one of his ministers faces a confidence vote which will be seen as a barometer of support for the coalition.

Opposition parties say Sandro Bondi, the minister for culture, should be held responsible for the parlous state of Pompeii, the ancient Roman city where the famed House of the Gladiators crumbled into dust earlier this month, in a further humiliation for Italy's international image.

As the government descends into chaos after the resignation of four ministers this month, the economy is stuck in the doldrums, the public debt burden has reached 120 per cent of GDP and the prime minister's approval ratings have slumped to 35 per cent – the lowest level since he was re-elected in May 2008. In the past last month Mr Berlusconi has also been accused of sleeping with an escort girl and of intervening with police on behalf of a Moroccan-born teenage belly-dancer who goes by the stage name of Ruby the Heart Stealer.

Students protesting against funding cuts have also clashed with police around the country, occupying the Colosseum in Rome and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

There is a feeling that Mr Berlusconi is fiddling while not just Rome, but the whole country, is metaphorically engulfed by flames, and that Italy could be witnessing the emperor's last days.

Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, th[p0-e head of Ferrari and one of Italy's most respected businessmen, said on Wednesday: "The one-man show is over."

The strain is beginning to tell on Mr Berlusconi – he looks physically drawn, and earlier this week phoned in to a live current affairs programme, ranting about his government's supposed achievements and attacking perceived bias by RAI, the state broadcaster.

The real crunch for the media baron will come on December 14, when the government faces votes of no confidence in both houses of parliament.

Defeat could trigger Mr Berlusconi's resignation and new elections – more than two years before his mandate is supposed to expire in 2013.

But his past as a salesman and entrepreneur makes him a formidable political campaigner, and few would rule out his chances of bouncing back into power against all the odds.