Speaker of the European Parliament Martin Schulz has been living in Silvio Berlusconi's "reflected glory" since they first crossed swords in 2003, the former Italian prime minister claimed Monday, amid a growing row over his claim on Saturday that Germans deny the existence of concentration camps.

Just to remind ourselves, that is the glory of a man who has been expelled from the senate, stripped of his title of Cavaliere, banned from standing in elections and is about to begin an (albeit ludicrously lenient) sentence for massive tax fraud, while he awaits the outcome of his appeal for a six-year sentence for paying for sex with an underage prostitute and abuse of office. His statement also comes on the day that magistrates in Bari released their explanation of their verdict in December’s case against lawyer Salvatore Castellaneta for supplying twenty-six prostitutes for twenty-one of the former PM’s so-called "bunga bunga" parties, saying the case revealed "a disconcerting picture of the private life of the various parties involved, from the girls all the way to the then Italian prime minister.”

The row over Berlusconi’s latest gaffe while campaigning for the European elections – outstandingly thoughtless and offensive even by his exceptional standards – is refusing to go away. On Monday Chancellor Merkel’s office was forced react. "The claims that were reported are so absurd that the government won't comment on them,” Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert commented.

The latest insult came after Berlusconi's smirking explanation of his 2003 claim that the German politician would be perfect for a part as a concentration-camp guard in a series aired on one of his Mediaset TV channels. Not content to put one foot in his mouth once again he then proceeded, with extraordinary agility for a 77-year-old, to put the other in, with his outlandish claim that Germans deny concentration camps ever existed.

Schulz is the centre-left candidate in the race to lead the EU Commission. His challenger, Jean-Claude Juncker, who represents the centre-right European People's Party to which Forza Italia belongs, called on Berlusconi to withdraw the comments, saying they "sickened" him, and to apologise to the survivors of the Holocaust and to the citizens of Germany. But when interviewed on Italian TV Monday, Berlusconi failed to retract his statement, with his usual excuse that the "left-wing press" had taken his statement out of context. Unfortunately for him, the whole sorry episode was videoed. Meanwhile, the FI leader in the Chamber of Deputies, Renato Brunetta, defended his dear leader by claiming, "Juncker bows down to the Germans, while Berlusconi is far-sighted“, prompting a centrist MP to ask whether anyone had told Brunetta that Juncker was his candidate. Brunetta went on to say that Juncker’s statement resulted from “a sad case of electioneering”. No one, of course, could accuse Berlusconi of that, even though the whole rambling diatribe was merely an excuse to tell people not to vote for the left, because a vote for the left was a vote for Schulz, “who doesn't care much for Italy”.

Surrounded by yes men and women who did not get where they are today by telling their leader when he is out of order, Berlusconi simply doesn't understand why not everyone sees the funny side of his Holocaust jokes. In thinking he can win votes with such remarks, he is insulting not only the Germans but the very many Italians who are as horrified by his crassness as everyone else in Europe.

Tag: berlusconi, Brunetta, Europe, Juncker, Schulz

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