Attack Silvio Berlusconi for his policies, not his private life

Berlusconi has been accused of getting an acquaintance to pay models, actresses and call girls to attend parties at his home in Rome.

A number of these women are now coming forward with new claims, a few of them pretty lurid. It's hard to know where exactly the truth lies: these girls say they were at Berlusconi's house, but the evidence is sketchy.

Whatever the truth, though, many of these allegations can surely be laid at the door of the prime minister's opponents on the Left.

It's a sign of their desperation and their inability to dent Berlusconi's popularity, having lost the election last year, that they must now rely on this kind of smear.

Certainly Berlusconi should have been more careful. It's his private life, but he should realise that when you're prime minister, when you are constantly in the public eye as he is, such things could look bad.

If these allegations are true, that is an issue - even though it's his private life. I think he may have made mistakes because he has become a little bit arrogant and because he has the wrong people around him.

Yet there's nothing really new in such scandals. They are a staple of Italian politics: there are always claims of scandal from both sides against the other.

What is sad is that the Left really can't seem to find any way of attacking Berlusconi on the big political issues that Italy should be focusing on, such as the economic crisis and constitutional reform.

They should be using other weapons - but they can't. It's irresponsible of the press, too: they may have endangered the prime minister's security by giving out details of his private residence.

The Left may yet inflict damage through all this. They will not bring Berlusconi down, but they will probably succeed in defeating his ambitions of transforming the post of prime minister into a more French-style presidency.

Making himself Italy's leader with powers more like those of French president Sarkozy was Berlusconi's dream. It's hard to see how that will happen now.

All this may seem odd to English observers. British politics is very different, not least because any whiff of a sex scandal like this one would be almost sure to bring down a senior politician. The same is true of the United States.

But our culture in Italy is very different. People get less worked up about such titillating accusations. We have more of a sense of humour over these things.

In any case, my impression is that Italians are tiring of this affair. What's more, it may backfire: all this may make Berlusconi an underdog and gain him sympathy.

Sure, some people want to get rid of him, but then some people are crosser with those who are manipulating this scandal than they are with Berlusconi.

And if the party claims are true? Personally I don't set myself up as any kind of moral arbiter - I don't judge anybody else's private life. You should be able to handle your private life the way you want.

I don't agree with Berlusconi's behaviour, if the more lurid claims about these parties are true - but it's not for me to judge other people's morals.

What I do find immoral is that such claims should be splashed across the papers as they have been - all for political gain by the prime minister's opponents.

Nancy dell'Olio is an ambassador for Vital Voices, Hillary Clinton's charity promoting women's human rights.