One word was on the minds of Italians yesterday: blackmail.

Could the claims emerging daily against Silvio Berlusconi leave him open to the kind of persuasion that makes holding political office impossible? Would he be tempted to cut a deal to suppress them? Even his friends on the Right are starting to wonder.

“The spectre of blackmail hangs over Berlusconi,” said La Stampa. Giampiero Mughini, a right-wing commentator, said: “A Prime Minister who is so blackmailable is a problem for the country.”

Berlusconi loyalists, including Ignazio La Russa, the Defence Minister, are still publicly blaming the allegations on a labyrinthine plot to undermine him but there are also hints of a move against him by his own side.

At yesterday’s EU summit in Brussels, Mr Berlusconi said the future of his Government was “not in question”. But the Bari inquiry has clearly rattled him.

Among unlikely defences trotted out yesterday was that presented by Vittorio Feltri, the editor of Libero. He said that Mr Berlusconi had been operated on for prostate cancer in 1996, which meant “goodbye” to sexual relations. “To say he is a sex maniac is simply ridiculous. If I were Silvio I would go on TV and show my doctor’s certificate,” he said.

The last line of defence, in other words, is that Mr Berlusconi is a laddish 72-year-old who boasts of his conquests — but is all talk.

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