Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi once again found himself in an extremely sensitive situation, saying that the Germans refused to recognize the existence of concentration camps during World War II.
“According to the Germans, concentration camps never existed,” Silvio Berlusconi said with confidence during his speech in Milan, where he represented candidates from his Forza, Italia party in the elections in European Parliament. The media tycoon, who seeks to promote his wards in the elections, recalled the scandal of eleven years ago, when he inadvertently compared the German politician Martin Schulz with the overseer in the death camps. “I did not want to offend him. But, for heaven’s sake, the Germans believe that concentration camps never existed, ”the former prime minister said this week.
The Party of European Socialists (PES), to which Schultz is offended by a politician, immediately criticized the opponent’s words and called on the European People’s Party (EPP), which includes Forward Italy, to condemn the statements of the billionaire.
“The remarks of Berlusconi offend the whole German people, not only Martin Schulz. Moreover, it is a cynical attempt to divert attention from pressing issues such as elections, the need to create new jobs and improve things in Europe, ”said PES Chairman Sergei Stanishev.
Jean-Claude Juncker, candidate for the post of European Commission President, today called on the scandalous politician to apologize for incorrect statements. “Berlusconi’s latest statement simply struck me,” said Juncker, the former Prime Minister of Luxembourg. “I urge Berlusconi to immediately renounce his words and apologize to all the surviving victims of the Holocaust and the citizens of Germany. In European politics there is no place for statements betraying the values on which our European Union is based. Some things cannot be joked, especially the violence of the Holocaust, which claimed the lives of millions of innocent people. ”
It is worth noting that the former Prime Minister of Italy does not cease to amaze the whole world with his contradictory and casual remarks. So, in 2003, in an interview with the British magazine, Berlusconi said that Benito Mussolini, the fascist dictator in Italy, was actually not such a bad person. “Mussolini did not kill anyone. He just sent people on vacation in exile, ”the politician said. In fact, Mussolini helped send about 7,000 people on vacation, more than 6,000 of whom never returned home. Such an answer Berlusconi gave to compare Iraq's reign of Saddam Hussein with Italy since the time of Benito Mussolini. The ex-prime minister simply did not like the words of the reporter. When he faced a wave of criticism after the publication of the interview, he did not hesitate to call his conversation with the journalist “simple summer chatter,” which should never have been leaked to newspapers.
Meanwhile, while the whole world is discussing Berlusconi’s next trick, the politician himself has begun correctional work in a nursing home in the city of Cesano Boscone near Milan.
He was sentenced to this punishment by a Milan court in the case of financial fraud and tax evasion. Initially, the jury decided to give Berlusconi four years in prison, but later the court commuted his sentence to one year of community service in view of the venerable age of the 77-year-old billionaire. Now Berlusconi is obliged to appear at the place of serving his sentence four hours a week for 10 months. However, if the scandalous politician behaves well, the court promised that he would reduce his punishment in six months.
