Silvio Berlusconi Wiretaps: 'Only Prime Minister in His Spare Time'
Meetings with the pope and world leaders were "interfering" with his sex life.
Sept. 18, 2011— -- Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi boasted in newly leaked taped phone conversations that he is "only prime minister in his spare time," and complained that meetings with the pope and world leaders are interfering with his sex life.
After a romp with a group of women he complains, "Listen, all the beds are full here ... this lot won't go home, even at gunpoint."
One of the leaked wiretap transcripts that have appeared in numerous Italian newspapers also reveals Berlusconi talking to a man accused of procuring prostitutes for him, saying he "did" eight of them.
"Last night I had a queue outside the door of the bedroom," Berlusconi said. "There were 11 ... I only did eight because I could not do anymore."
Berlusconi lashed back at these latest revelations in a letter to an Italian newspaper.
"My private life is not a crime…," he said.
But the transcripts and tapes have Italian lawmakers asking for an investigation of whether the "spare time" prime minister used taxpayer money to pay for shuttling his young women around the country.
With Italy in an economic crisis and the government having recently passed a stringent austerity measures, the calls for Berlusconi to step down are getting louder.
"No one understands why the premier is dedicating a good deal of his time to questions not related to fighting the economic crisis and relaunching the economy," Chamber of Deputies speaker Gianfranco Fini, a former Berlusconi ally, said at a rally near Milan.
Berlusconi is currently on trial in Milan, accused of paying an underage Moroccan prostitute for sex at one of his notorious "bunga bunga" parties.
Prosecutors say 74-year-old Berlusconi paid to have sex with a Moroccan night club dancer known as "Ruby the Heartstealer" at least 13 times.
Berlusconi has denied he had sex with the teenager, but wiretaps leaked to the media in April suggest he knew Ruby was not of adult age.
Scandals
Are average Italians shocked? It depends who you talk to, said James Walston, a professor of political studies at The American University of Rome.
Walston said Italians are remarkably not as scandalized as one would think.
"Most Italian men like the idea of a man who as he grows older has fewer wrinkles, more hair and plenty of girls," Walston said.
ABC News' Lama Hasan and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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