ROME –
Doctors on Tuesday told Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to restrict public duties for two weeks after an attack by a man who has apologised for his “cowardly” act.
Berlusconi, who suffered a broken nose, cuts to his face and lost two teeth when he was hit by a souvenir replica of Milan cathedral, will be allowed to leave hospital on Wednesday, his personal doctor Alberto Zangrillo told reporters. The 73-year-old prime minister — who has already cancelled plans to attend the UN climate summit in Copenhagen — is under orders “to refrain from important public activities for at least two weeks,” he added.
The doctor said Berlusconi had to: “To abstain from all activities that would expose him to public situations, to stress.” “Physically, he is eating normally, but with a bit of difficulty,” the doctor said. “In terms of morale, it’s still a matter of concern … but he is showing signs of recovery.”
Doctors had already said Berlusconi would have to wait 10 days before starting work again. Massimo Tartaglia, who prosecutors say has a decade-old history of mental illness, sent a letter to Berlusconi apologising for for what he called a “superficial, cowardly and inconsiderate act” in hurling the replica cathedral into Berlusconi’s face on Sunday. “I don’t recognise myself,” Tartaglia, said in his letter which his lawyers took to the Milan hospital where Berlusconi is held.
The man said he “acted alone (with no) form of militancy or political affiliation.” Tartaglia faces up to five years in prison if convicted of injuring the prime minister. Berlusconi’s spokesman, Paolo Bonaiuti, said the prime minister’s second night in hospital was better than the first. Berlusconi was awake at dawn and again immediately asked to see all newspapers whose front pages are devoted to the attack, which many say highlight a poisonous political atmosphere in Italy.
The spokesman said Berlusconi’s return to official duties would be “a problem, because it is very difficult to keep him away from his work.” “It is the same with visits, they want to limit them, but he wants to see everybody.” Posters and cards with messages of goodwill have been left around the gates of the San Raffaele hospital where Berlusconi is being treated. One banner put up by AC Milan football fans said “Forza Presidente” (Go President). Berlusconini is president of the illustrious local football club.
The attack has raised questions over the security around Berlusconi. It “proves in a worrying way that the system for protecting the head of government is not effective and has gaps in it,” said lawmaker Carmelo Briguglio, a member of a parliamentary security panel. Bonaiuti said Monday that the prime minister had recently complained to him: “There’s such a spiral of hatred, do you think something might happen?” Interior Minister Roberto Maroni however said Berlusconi’s security detail was “beyond reproach.”
World leaders including French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Russian and British prime ministers Vladimir Putin and Gordon Brown, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Pope Benedict XVI have sent messages of sympathy.
The attack came as Berlusconi, now in his third term as prime minister, fights mounting domestic troubles. Allegations about dalliances with younger women have led his wife Veronica Lario to file for divorce. She is reportedly seeking a 43 million euros (65 million dollars) a year settlement.
Last week he dismissed accusations of Mafia ties made by a turncoat criminal at an Italian court. In October Italy’s top court quashed an amnesty law that would have benefitted the prime minister, who faces corruption charges. On Friday a Milan court adjourned one of the trials against him until January 15. bur-mle/tw/ss Zangrillo said that the attack could have injured far more seriously.
“If an object of that type had hit a more fragile area such as an eye or the skull” the injuries could have been fatal, Zangrillo said in a television interview from Milan’s San Interior Minister Roberto Maroni however said Berlusconi’s security detail was “beyond reproach.”
