ROME – One of Italy’s most senior female politicians has condemned Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as a “sultan” who degrades women and predicted many of those who voted for him will abandon him in the next election.
Rosy Bindi, president of the opposition Democratic Party and deputy speaker of the lower house of the parliament, said in an interview sex scandals were likely to cost Berlusconi power. “Italian women are paying the highest price for this scandal, with an image being spread of women whose value is reduced to their bodies and who become tradeable goods at the disposal of the sultan, the emperor,” she said.
“Berlusconi has based an important part of his electoral success on women … but undoubtedly his approval ratings are now falling … women will represent a key element in putting an end to Berlusconi’s honeymoon in our country,” she said in her office in the lower house on Wednesday evening.
