Survivors should treat ordeal as camping, says Berlusconi
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Thursday April 09 2009
ITALIAN Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi appears to have made a serious verbal gaffe after telling a German TV station that the 17,000 people left homeless by the Abruzzo earthquake should consider themselves to be on a "camping weekend".
Mr Berlusconi told a reporter : "They have everything they need, they have medical care, hot food . . . of course, their current lodgings are a bit temporary, but they should see it like a weekend of camping."
The 72-year-old premier last week threatened "direct and tough" measures against the Italian press for its coverage of his antics at the G20 summit in London, when Mr Berlusconi missed one official photocall and annoyed the Queen at another by shouting out loud to attract the attention of Barack Obama.
But his comments to the German TV station must rank among the most undiplomatic of a long career that has seen him comparing a German MEP with a concentration camp guard and describing Mr Obama, two days after his election as president, as "young, handsome and suntanned".
Mr Berlusconi had won plaudits in Italy for his prompt reaction to the Abruzzo quake: he immediately cancelled an official visit to Moscow, declared an emergency to unblock federal funds and visited the region to oversee the relief effort.
Most of the homeless from Monday's quake spent last night in tent camps that have sprung up around L'Aquila, capital of the Abruzzo region.
With residents told not to sleep in their homes in case of further tremors, thousands are sleeping in their cars.
Mr Berlusconi said yesterday that the search for survivors would continue "another 48 hours until we are certain" no living person remains under the rubble.
He said 150 people had so far been pulled out alive, among them 98-year-old Maria D'Antuono, who was rescued 30 hours after the quake, telling rescuers that she had kept herself busy crocheting. (©The Times, London)
- Philippe Naughton in Rome
