Italy's Berlusconi may need weeks to recover

Doctors on Monday ordered Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to spend a second night in hospital after the attack.

MILAN, December 14, 2009 (AFP) - Doctors on Monday ordered Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to spend a second night in hospital after an attack that left him with a broken nose and two teeth knocked out.

Berlusconi's first request on Monday was to see the front-page coverage of the attack that newspapers said highlighted political tensions in the country.

The 73-year-old billionaire's personal doctor, Alberto Zangrillo, said Berlusconi would stay in hospital at least until Tuesday and would need about three weeks to recover from the assault by a man said to have a history of mental problems.

The assailant threw a replica of Milan's iconic gothic cathedral, with a metal base and dozens of sharp spires, at the prime minister after a political rally in the northern city on Sunday.

Berlusconi's bloodied face dominated Italian newspapers on Monday, with even media that oppose the conservative prime minister condemning the incident.

The left-wing daily La Repubblica said the attack "highlights the degradation of the political climate in Italy."

"Friends and enemies, partisans and opponents must show solidarity" with Berlusconi. "What is at stake is nothing less than liberty," it said.

Berlusconi's alleged assailant, 42-year-old Massimo Tartaglia, was in an isolation cell in police custody, the ANSA news agency reported.

Police, who had to protect Tartaglia from an angry crowd as they detained him, say the suspect has a history of mental illness.

Tartaglia was also carrying a crucifix and tear gas, ANSA reported. His father, "upset" over the attack, tried to telephone Berlusconi in hospital but could not get through, the agency added.

At the rally Sunday of Berlusconi's People of Freedom party, scuffles broke out after about 10 people jeered him, calling him a "clown".

Berlusconi, who is battling revelations over his private life and divisions within his centre-right coalition, shouted back at them "shame on you", drowning them out with the help of the sound system.

Leading daily Corriere della Sera said there is a "poisoned climate" in Italy. "Political hate is a monster which when unleashed is difficult to control," the centrist paper wrote in an editorial.

"Constitutional violence" was the headline on the Berlusconi family's Il Giornale newspaper.

"The assailant is mad but the moral instigators are known even among some centre-right politicians," said the daily.

Berlusconi was the victim of a similar assault in Rome in 2004 when a man hit him with a camera tripod, cutting his head.

The flamboyant prime minister has come under increasing pressure in recent months over his personal affairs.

But Berlusconi, who began his third stint as prime minister in May last year, said he would not bow to pressure to go to the polls early.

Last week he dismissed accusations of Mafia ties made by a turncoat criminal at an Italian court.

A series of allegations about dalliances with younger women led his wife Veronica Lario to file for divorce.

Berlusconi's attendance at the 18th birthday party of aspiring model Noemi Letizia was the last straw for his wife, who is reportedly seeking a settlement of 43 million euros (65 million dollars) a year.

"The left says I'm a monster. But I'm not a monster and I'm a good boy," Berlusconi said at Sunday's rally with a wide smile.

Italy's top court in October quashed an amnesty law that would have benefitted the prime minister, who faces corruption charges. On Friday a Milan court adjourned one of the trials against him until January 15.

The prime minister faces allegations that he paid his British former tax lawyer, David Mills, 600,000 dollars to give false evidence in two trials in the 1990s.

Mills was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail over the case in February.