Sex, drugs and Italian politics

The secretary of Italy’s staunchly Catholic UDC party, Lorenzo Cesa, made a proposal, July 2007, Italian MPs be given an allowance to pay for their wives to come to Rome, to discourage them from turning to prostitutes to satisfy their sexual needs. Mr Cesa’s proposal came after one of his own MPs, Cosimo Mele, married with three children and expecting a fourth, admitted to spending the night in a luxury hotel suite with two prostitutes, one of whom was taken to hospital with an overdose of cocaine.

Mr Cesa’s idea appeared at best ill-timed, as Italy’s political machine is under attack by the media and public opinion for spending vast amounts of taxpayers’ money, and while political institutions themselves are making efforts, some not just cosmetic, to cut spending. Predictably, it drew a crossfire of criticism and ridicule.