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"Catherine Deneuve spoke blessed words," said
the 81-year-old Berlusconi, who resigned in 2011 mired in
scandal over his wild "Bunga Bunga" parties with young women and
under investigation over having sex with an underage prostitute.
"It's natural that women are happy if a man tries to seduce
them," he said in a television interview. "I don't have much
experience with this because it's always women who try to seduce
me."
Deneuve and 99 other French women on Tuesday denounced a
backlash against men, saying the recent international campaign
against sexual harassment amounted to "puritanism" and was
fueled by a "hatred of men."
In the aftermath of accusations against the U.S. movie producer
Weinstein, millions of women took to social media to share their
stories of being sexually harassed or assaulted, using the #Metoo
hashtag.
Berlusconi still leads his conservative Forza Italia (Go Italy!)
party and is mounting a political comeback ahead of elections on
March 4, even though he is personally barred from office because
of a 2013 conviction for tax fraud.
The billionaire media tycoon was eventually cleared in his sex
trial in 2014 because the judge ruled it could not be proved he
knew the age of the teenage nightclub dancer, Karima El Mahroug,
better known by her stage name "Ruby the Heartstealer".
However he is now on trial accused of bribing witnesses in the
case.
(Reporting by Massimiliano Di Giorgio writing by Gavin Jones;
editing by Mark Heinrich)
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