Berlusconi: Is it the end of the road?

I feel trapped. I try to get on with my life, but he finds me everywhere. On my couch, when I turn on my computer, and in my office. He's there in the morning, when I drink my cappucino at a bar in Rome and fellow customers make jokes about him.

He's there at parents' evening, where apparently conservative parents stop and ask me whether we should start a revolution. And he's there in the evening, when I meet my exhausted centre-left friends.

The girls' nights out are the worst. The constant exposure to images of him, our 74-year-old Prime Minister, and of half-naked young women allegedly linked to him is seriously affecting our mood. And our libido.

Being an Italian in what are - maybe - the last days of Silvio Berlusconi is confusing. Being an Italian woman is even more so. Many of us are worn out and ashamed, but we are also divided. There are those of us who can't take it any more. But there are also those who seek somehow to justify his behaviour.

"Oh well," they shrug. "Men will be men." We don't care, they say, about what he does in the privacy of his own home as long as his Government protects us from crime and immigration. What they make of the latest headlines is unclear.

I'd especially like to hear their opinions on Karima Keyek, the 17-year-old second-generation immigrant who frequented the Prime Minister's parties. Or, indeed, on allegations his state jet was used for delivering cannabis to his villa.

So lurid were her accounts that there were those of us who dared to think that Keyek - better known by her stage name Ruby - had finally done the unthinkable and pushed Berlusconi's public image beyond the point of no return.

Try as he might to insist the phrase "bunga bunga" was just an expression he used while telling jokes, Berlusconi's party game is now infamous. In the online Urban Dictionary, bunga bunga is now defined as an "erotic ritual which involves a powerful leader and several naked women".

Bunga bunga has become an instant, supposedly hilarious, household expression. We are now getting used to musical parodies on the radio, YouTube videos and constant one-liners.

Many compatriots have grown so accustomed to our dear leader's excesses they are immune to indignation. And so the story limps on. In fact, in our darkest moments, it seems as if it might never end.

Every day brings yet more sleaze. We have read the allegations of Perla Genovesi, a former staffer to an MP in Berlusconi's party, that several prominent politicians close to the Prime Minister were linked to a cocaine and prostitution ring, and we have heard escort girl Nadia Macri' tell of two sexual encounters with Berlusconi - and the €10,000 she was given in return.

Even Berlusconi's security detail had something to say. Some said they'd had enough of standing guard to flocks of call girls, often minors.

Amid all the sound and fury, how does our protagonist see fit to react? First off, by being rude about homosexuals ("It's much better to have a passion for beautiful girls than to be gay"); and then by declaring himself a victim of the mafia.

We, meanwhile, were asking: what other country in the world would allow him to stay in office? Italian politics has always been complicated. But now it is truly entangled.

Italy's macho culture is still alive and kicking, and Gianfranco Fini, the man perceived as Berlusconi's fiercest opponent, is simply seen as not being man enough to defeat him.

A former neo-fascist turned centrist with a newly formed movement, Future and Liberty, Fini has been emasculated by a media campaign targeting his family.

Although there are signs the Northern League, Berlusconi's closest ally, is distancing itself from him, the relationship between the PM and league leader Umberto Bossi seems too strong to be broken.

The official opposition is weak, divided and very litigious. And almost everyone, at least the men, consider the sex scandals more of a political weapon or a political liability than a serious ethical matter.

Newspapers supporting Berlusconi are starting to glorify the Prime Minister for his womanising.

I presume the British, Russians and the Burmese are with Berlusconi in a love of such things. But at least they do it more discreetly. After 16 years of on-and-off Berlusconi rule and after 30 years of watching his television channels, many Italians feel encouraged to brag about it, and to envy Berlusconi and his hordes of beautiful girls.

But are they so beautiful? "The ones we've seen seem to me more like caricatures of what a beautiful woman should be," says my friend Sara Bentivegna, professor of sociology at the La Sapienza university in Rome. "They look like interchangeable dolls, not real women. I'm not sure Berlusconi really likes women."

On televised debates, Berlusconi's Catholic political allies have been trying to justify his behaviour, their arguments becoming a litmus test for national hypocrisy. Maurizio Lupi, vice-president of the Lower House of Parliament and a member of the Catholic group Comunione e Liberazione, stood up to defend Berlusconi. His efforts were met with exasperation from Rosi Bindi, a Democratic Party MP who is accustomed to being the butt of Berlusconi's jokes.

"Lupi, stop here," she urged. "Do it for yourself." I, too, hope we Italians, women and men, will be able to stop here. Unfortunately, right now, we just don't know how.

NOTES ON HIS SCANDALS

February 2007
Berlusconi's second wife, Veronica Lario, demands a public apology from her husband for his flirting. He replies with a written apology.

April 2007
Italian magazine Oggi publishes paparazzi photographs showing Berlusconi at his Sardinian villa with five women.

May 2009
Lario says she wants a divorce after he attends model Noemi Letizia's 18th birthday party.

June 2009
Recordings of Berlusconi and escort Patrizia D'Addario come to light. Photos in El Pais show topless women and naked men at his villa.

October 2010
Karima Keyek, 17, claims Berlusconi paid her €7000 ($12,376) and gave her jewellery at two of his parties. She insists they never slept together. But it is claimed he told police to free her from custody when accused of stealing.

November 2010
TV showgirl Nadia Macri' says Berlusconi paid her €10,000 for sex in Sardinia last year and at his residence near Milan in April. She alleges cannabis was made available by means of Berlusconi's private jet.

* Maria Laura Rodota is the former editor of Italian women's magazine Amica and a columnist with Corriere della Sera