Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi pledged to work with "more force and more determination" after leaving hospital on Thursday, four days after an attack which left him with a broken nose and teeth. Television images showed a stony-faced Berlusconi, his nose and left cheek bandaged, waving to reporters from a limousine as his motorcade left the Milan hospital where he was taken after Sunday's attack.
The conservative premier, attacked at a rally on Sunday by a man with a history of mental illness, was driven to his mansion in the Milanese suburb of Arcore. Doctors have ordered the 73-year-old to limit his work schedule for up to two weeks. "Two things will remain as memories of these days: the hatred of a few and the love of many, so many Italians," Berlusconi said in a written statement.
"We will press ahead on the road to reforms that Italians are asking for. We owe that much to our people, to our democracy, where neither the violence of stones nor the greater violence of words will triumph." Images of the media tycoon's bloodied face shocked Italy on Sunday after 42-year-old Massimo Tartaglia hurled a miniature replica of Milan cathedral at the prime minister as he was shaking hands and signing autographs.
Tartaglia is in prison awaiting charges. Politicians from both sides of the spectrum have blamed tensions in recent months for the attack and traded accusations of hate-mongering. Some warned of the risk of a return to the violence which scarred Italy in the 1970s and 1980s. The discovery of a half-exploded letter bomb in Milan's Bocconi university on Wednesday, claimed by a little-known anarchist group, fuelled security concerns.
Berlusconi, a popular but divisive figure, appeared to reach out to the new leader of the opposition Democratic Party Pier Luigi Bersani, who visited him this week in hospital, saying he "felt closer to some political leaders of the opposition". A poll on RAI state TV suggested his popularity, which has flagged after a series of sex scandals and judicial setbacks in recent months, had received a sympathy boost.
Comments
Comments are closed.