Berlusconi's salty comments draw condemnation

Silvio Berlusconi was accused yesterday of dragging Italy's already raucous general election campaign into the gutter when he declared that those who voted against him would be "dickheads."

Speaking journalists about the expected outcome of the election next Sunday and Monday, the prime minister said: "I have too much respect for the Italians to think there are that many dickheads around who'd vote against their own interests."

The center-left opposition reacted with condemnation.

"Berlusconi has confirmed himself to be an uncouth and vulgar man," the opposition bloc said in a statement. "By using these ignoble and violent words, Berlusconi has thrown off the mask and shown himself for what he is: a person who uses the media like a thug and who lacks any respect for democracy, for institutions and for Italians."

The latest of many outrageous remarks during the campaign came the day after he promised to wipe out council taxes for first homes, during a bitterly contested television duel with his rival, Romano Prodi. Berlusconi also undertook to slash a levy on current account interest and, in a bid for female voters, promised to put more women in his next government, including a woman deputy prime minister.

Alessandra Mussolini, who is running for parliament in Berlusconi's alliance, claimed yesterday that she would be given the post.

The most recent polls found the right was trailing by up to five percentage points and suggested some 24 percent of Italian voters were still "don't knows."

But Renato Mannheimer, a leading pollster, said: "There are actually very few people who are undecided about who to vote for. The issue is whether they vote or not."

He said Berlusconi was seeking to mobilize those who, if they could be persuaded to cast their vote, would cast it for him.

"And with this sort of remark he could perhaps manage it," he said.

Alberto Mancinelli, a lecturer in communications at Trento School of Management, said he believed Berlusconi's language -- the key word was coglioni, which literally translates as "testicles" -- might rebound on him.

"It is so strong he could lose points as a result," Mancinelli said.

Berlusconi's comments during the campaign have ensured he remains the center of attention. This week, a Milan newspaper reported that he had told a party meeting about a straw poll of sex chat lines he had conducted during a sleepless night.

"Seven out of nine of the young ladies who answered acknowledged they preferred me [to Prodi]," he was quoted as telling his followers.