Berlusconi’s Hitler remarks spark scorn from PD
(see related) (ANSA) – Rome, November 6 – The center-left Democratic Party (PD) on Wednesday chastised ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi for saying his children reputedly feel like Jews being persecuted by Hitler.
”Instead of asking the Italian people to forgive him for his tax-fraud conviction, he ventures to make appalling comparisons with the Holocaust”, said PD MP Danilo Leva, a lawyer who heads the ruling party’s Justice Forum.
”Is being equal before the law and respecting the rule of law the same as the persecution of the Jews?” he added rhetorically.
In an interview for a forthcoming book, the ex-premier and media magnate told journalist Bruno Vespa that ”my children say they feel like the Jewish families must have felt in Germany during Hiteler’s regime”. Berlusconi, 77, is set to serve one year of community service for a four-year tax-fraud sentence – cut by an amnesty – which also carries a ban from office.
He is appealing a six-year sentence for sex with an underage prostitute and abuse of power to cover it up; and a one-year sentence for involvement in the publication of an illegally obtained wiretap.