ROME, Oct 30, (AFP) -Italy's Silvio Berlusconi said on Friday he loved life and women and would not change his ways as critics demanded information about his relationship with a teenage girl who alleges she partied with him.
Stories about the 17-year-old Moroccan named Ruby have been splashed over the front pages in Italy ever since she told magistrates in Milan she had been to a number of parties in Berlusconi's private villa in Arcore.
"I am a very playful person, full of life. I love life, I love women," the 74-year-old told Italian journalists in Brussels on the sidelines of a European Union summit.
Italian media reports said Ruby, an aspiring model, had tried to resist arrest for theft by telling police she knew Berlusconi from parties she had attended at Arcore.
Berlusconi's lawyers strongly deny any suggestion the prime minister may have had sexual relations with the girl. "No one can make me change my lifestyle, I'm proud of it," Berlusconi said. "I have a terrible life, it takes a super-human effort to carry on, working until two thirty in the morning, going to bed and getting up again at seven," he said.
"If every now and then I need an evening to relax and tell some jokes, no one can make me change my lifestyle," he added.
Media reports alleged the prime minister put pressure on police in Milan to release the girl.
"I didn't influence anybody, I would not have been able to exercise powers which I don't have," Berlusconi said.
"This person was presented to me as having a tragic life and I decided to help her, but I didn't give her cars, all those things the media is reporting," he said.
Berlusconi was implicated in a series of sex scandals in 2009 which led to his wife Veronica Lario filing for divorce. |
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