‘No condoms’ for Silvio Berlusconi

Further recordings made by the callgirl Patrizia D'Addario, released yesterday by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, include the businessman who set her up with Silvio Berlusconi warning her that the Italian prime minister did not like to use a condom.

The recording was apparently made in October 2008 as Patrizia D'Addario was getting ready for a party at the PM's official residence, the Palazzo Grazioli. She had been invited, along with several other women, by Gianpolo Tarantini, a Bari businessman allegedly looking for contract favours from the prime minister.

In the new recording, Tarantini can be heard explaining to D'Addario that Berlusconi would not be "taking you like an escort, he will be taking you as a friend of mine that I brought along".

Tarantini: "I just wanted to tell you that... at 9.15 a driver will come by to pick you up and we will go there..."

D'Addario: "It's 1,000 for the night."

Tarantini: "I've already given you 1,000 and if you decide to stay with him... he will give you a present... Oh another thing... Look, he doesn't use a condom."

D'Addario: "No way... No chance without a condom... How can I be sure?"

Tarantini told her: "Come on... it's Berlusconi!"

D'Addario claims she did not stay with Berlusconi after the October party, but that she did do so after the next party Tarantini invited her to - an intimate dinner on November 4, the night of President Barack Obama's election victory.

In the first recordings of Berlusconi and a D'Addario posted by La Repubblica, as reported on The First Post yesterday, Berlusconi could allegedly be heard asking the callgirl to wait in bed while he had a shower.

With the release of the two sets of recordings, the political pressure on Berlusconi is mounting. The Italian opposition has demanded for the first time a parliamentary debate on the damage being done to the country's reputation by the constant drip of revelations about Berlusconi's private life.

And, again for the first time, an opinion poll has shown his popularity drooping below 50 per cent. In a poll by IPR Marketing, only 49 per cent of those questioned expressed confidence in the PM. ·