FLAVIO BRIATORE, the Formula One team manager renowned for dating super-models, started a campaign yesterday to reverse taxes imposed by Sardinia’s regional government on yachts, second homes and private aircraft.

Critics say that the luxury taxes have backfired, with wealthy tourists deserting the island rather than pay up. Signor Briatore, the manager of the Renault Formula One team and owner of The Billionaire, Sardinia’s top nightclub, took out advertisements in the press to condemn the taxes.

Tonight the noted playboy, whose former girlfriends include the models Naomi Campbell and Heidi Klum (by whom he has a daughter) will host a “gala VIP protest party” at The Billionaire. Those expected to attend include Silvio Berlusconi, the former Prime Minister, who is rumoured to be faced with an extra €54,000 (£36,000) tax bill on his villa on the Costa Smeralda.

In the advertisements Signor Briatore said that the taxes were “bringing development and wealth to France, Greece, Spain, Croatia — but certainly not to Sardinia”. He added: “Entrepreneurs and tourists invest in places where they are welcomed with open arms, not a closed fist.”

The taxes are the brainchild of Renato Soru, the island’s left-wing president. But Il Giornale, the newspaper owned by the Berlusconi family, reported that a sign had been erected at the entrance to the port of Bonifacio on the neighbouring French island of Corsica reading “Merci, Monsieur Soru”.

According to Sardinian maritime officials, moorings at Sardinian ports and marinas have dropped by more than 60 per cent. The new taxes apply to any yacht longer than 14m (46ft). Volare, a flying magazine, said that arrivals of private aircraft at Olbia airport had also reduced by nearly 25 per cent.

However, Signor Soru said that “the figures being bandied about are inaccurate”, and insisted that Sardinia’s marinas and five-star hotels were full. Even if there was a fall in marine traffic, it was “not necessarily a bad thing”, he said. “At times our seas are so crowded they resemble motorways.”

He said that “most rich tourists in any case do not spend a single euro in Sardinia”. Signor Soru added that the tax on second homes was justified because “the owners are paying for the privilege of living in a unique jewel of the Mediterranean”.

He said that there were 400,000 second homes on the island, “an enormous number. Who else are we going to tax to fund our development — the unemployed?” A second home of 100 sq m was subject to an extra tax of €1,200 a year, “less than a week’s rent”.

He was supported by Tom Barrack, the Californian billionaire of Lebanese origin who bought a complex of Costa Smeralda resorts three years ago for $340 million. He said: “The hotels and marinas of the Costa Smeralda are overflowing — you cannot find a hotel room or a berth.”

But Renato Masucci, the head of Federagenti, an association of Italian maritime agencies, said that the new measures were “having a very dangerous effect on the Italian nautical system as well as the local Sardinian economy”. Signor Masucci said that “if the aim was to raise revenue then President Soru should have the courage to admit the measure has failed”.

Franco Cuccureddu, the mayor of Castelsardo and head of the consortium of Sardinian tourist ports and marinas, said that 2006 was proving an annus horribilis. “We are appealing to the European Commission in Brussels to intervene,” he said. The taxes, which apply until the end of September, run from €1,000 for yachts between 14m and 16m to €15,000 for yachts over 60m.

They must be paid within 24 hours of arrival. Bill Gates was reported to have cancelled his annual trip to Sardinia over the charges.

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