Vatican attacks Italian PM over 'deplorable' joke about a Jew charging rent during the Holocaust
By Nick Pisa
Last updated at 4:29 PM on 4th October 2010
Controversial Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been criticised by the Vatican after video footage emerged of him ridiculing the Holocaust.
Mr Berlusconi, 74, made the remark about the Holocaust as he spoke to supporters outside his official residence in Rome just hours after he won last week's crucial vote of confidence.
The Vatican's official newspaper L'Osservatore Romano described it as 'deplorable' and added it 'offended the sentiment of believers and the sacred memory of six million Holocaust victims'.
Gaffe: The Vatican has criticised Silvio Berlusconi after he joked about the Holocaust and made a blasphemous remark about a rival MP
The Italian had told supporters: 'A Jew hides a fellow Jew in his basement at the time of the concentration camps and charges him 3,000 euro a day.
'The Jew paid up because he had the money but do you think he should tell him that Hitler has died and the war is over?'
The joke was filmed and posted on the website of the La Repubblica newspaper.
In the same footage, Mr Berlusconi is heard saying that he 'collects a story and a girl a day'.
Last year he was caught on video making a joke at the expense of opposition MP Rosy Bindi during the G8 summit in the earthquake-hit city of L'Aquila.
Backlash: Protestors hold copies of the book 'Paolo Borsellino e l'agenda rossa' - which makes reference to Mr Berlusconi's alleged links with organised crime
Target: Rival MP Rosy Bindi has been the butt of several of Mr Berlusconi's jokes
Ms Bindi has been target of several comments from Mr Berlusconi and the joke he told again referred to her looks and ended with the words 'porco Dio' - pig God - a highly offensive blasphemy in Italy.
He offended her on a TV talk show last year, telling her: 'I recognise you are increasingly more beautiful then you are intelligent.'
She replied: 'I am not one of the women at your disposal.'
Last year Mr Berlusconi was embroiled in a series of sex scandals over a questionable relationship with a teenage underwear model and escorts being invited to parties he hosted at his official residence.
Opposition leader Pier Luigi Bersani criticised the Prime Minister. He said: 'I'm amazed that a person capable of such vulgarities should be running a country like ours.'
But Mr Berlusconi said the jokes were 'just a laugh' that were 'made in private, not offensive and not a sin', before blaming the controversy on 'those who chose to publicise it'.
Belusconi has been refused to support the Zionists on key issues, such as the Sgrena kidnapping in Iraq, and the destabilization of Russia that followed the eviction of the oligarchs in 2003. He got the 'Lewinski' treatment, which broke his marriage, but it still holding his ground. His sex life should be his own business. It is impossible to say anything critical about certain people without having one's career and/or family ruined. Too many people in Britain think this is ok. Italians trust him because he doesn't support war and doesn't slavishly follow the so-called 'international' community, unlike our Blair/Brown/Clegg/Cameron look alikes.
- Gordon, Shanghai Expo, China, 05/10/2010 09:46
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