Intellectuals join anti-Berlusconi rally
Updated: 09:15, Sunday February 6, 2011
Thousands of people have attended a rally to demand Premier Silvio Berlusconi's resignation following allegations he paid for sex with a 17-year-old girl.
'We are here to defend the honour of Italy, to remind the world that all Italians are not the same,' popular novelist Eco told thousands of demonstrators at a Milan concert hall on Saturday.
Drawing comparisons between Berlusconi and embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, he added, jokingly, 'the little default is not wanting to step down.'
Greeted like a rock star, anti-mafia writer Roberto Saviano for his part declared, 'our democracy has been taken hostage.'
He called on the demonstrators 'to rebel against an image of a corrupt country' and affirmed of 'the right to dream of a cleaner Italy,' at the rally that also featured Italy's former president Oscar Luigi Scalfaro.
Berlusconi has remained defiant in the face of his latest legal troubles, with judges set to request he stand trial in a case involving a dancer known as 'Ruby the Heart-Stealer'.
'One cannot give in and I am the example of resistance: for 17 years there have been assusations to send me home but I remain on the job,' Berlusconi said early on Saturday during phone link-up with a rally of his People of Freedom party (PDL).
The inquiry into Berlusconi's alleged liaisons with prostitutes - denied by the prime minister - was first reported last month and has dominated Italian newspapers since then.
Berlusconi's critics have multiplied their calls for him to leave office and have organised a series of demonstrations including the one in Milan and in Forence, where some 3000 gathered to defend women's dignity and protest against his behaviour.
Read more here:
http://www.skynews.com.au/politics/article.aspx?id=573740
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