Mirth and anger at Berlusconi 'miracle'

Silvio Berlusconi said he made a disabled man walk

By David Willey in Rome

Italian opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi has been mocked at home for telling Italian MPs in Strasbourg he had performed a miracle.

Berlusconi was quoted as saying that he had once told a young man confined to a wheelchair that he should get up and walk - which the disabled person actually did a few days later.

The Pope is not expected to recognise the miracle

This perhaps disingenuous miracle story brought tears of laughter and of rage to the eyes of the left wing in Italy, who see it as a pre-election ploy aimed at credulous Catholic voters in next year's general election.

Walter Veltroni, the leader of the ruling left-wing party, called Berlusconi's remarks "offensive nonsense".

Gloria Buffo, another left-wing politician, said Berlusconi had insulted not only disabled people but also the intelligence of his fellow countrymen.

Berlusconi's miracles had so far been limited to boasting about the multiplication of pensions and jobs, she said - now he was offering to restore the sick to health.

Media mogul

A spokesman for the Democratic Party of the Left suggested that the Vatican should immediately put Mr Berlusconi down on its list of candidates for beatification.

Silvio Berlusconi, tipped as the likely winner of next year's election, is an astute campaigner.

As owner of Italy's three biggest commercial television networks, he follows the TV audience ratings very carefully and it cannot have escaped his attention that this week's biggest audience was for a film about the miracles of Padre Pio, Italy's favourite popular saint.

In the last elections, Mr Berlusconi became the target of satirical jokes when he called himself "the annointed of the Lord".

Yet he realises that voters in this still predominantly Catholic country feel comfortable with religious metaphor.