Italian Prime Minister Vows to Leave 'Shitty' Italy in Recorded Conversation

If you did not know it before, it is crystal clear now, Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi has had it. The Guardian reports Berlusconi vows to leave 'shitty' Italy in conversation recorded by police

In a sign of his frustration at the investigations into his alleged crimes and misdemeanours, Silvio Berlusconi vowed in July to leave Italy, which he described as a "shitty country" that "sickened" him.

The Italian prime minister's astonishing remarks are contained in the transcript of a telephone conversation secretly recorded by police investigating claims he was being blackmailed about his sex life.

At dawn on Thursday, police swooped on a flat near Via Veneto – one of Rome's most expensive streets – to arrest Giampaolo Tarantini, a central figure in a scandal that threatened to bring down Berlusconi two years ago.

Tarantini's wife, Angela Devenuto, was also taken into custody and a search launched for a third person. The arrest warrant shows that the three are accused of extorting at least €500,000 (£440,000) "as well as other benefits of economic significance". Berlusconi has admitted paying the couple, but said he did so voluntarily.

The sex scandal at the origin of the latest allegations was one of several involving Berlusconi in the past three years. He is on trial in Milan charged with paying an underage prostitute and then using his position to cover up the alleged offence, but that case is not related to the one that has now come back to haunt him.

Details of the latest investigation were leaked last month in a news magazine belonging to Berlusconi. The magazine, Panorama, claimed the prosecutors believed Tarantini was being paid to stop him contradicting the prime minister's claim that he was unaware that some of the women who visited his home were prostitutes.

But Panorama said Tarantini had repeatedly confirmed in wiretapped conversations that Berlusconi was indeed oblivious of the payments the women were receiving. Italy's prime minister, who turns 75 later this month, has made much over the years of his talents as a playboy and has insisted he would never pay for sex.

These stories of internal bickering show the fragile nature of the Eurozone bailout proposals. Finland's insistence on collateral is another piece of the fragile puzzle.

This whole mess seems like it is attached together with rubber-bands, paper clips, and Elmer's glue. I fail to see how it can possibly last.