Thousands of protesters marched in more than 60 towns and cities nationwide.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12442833

Women braved the rain in Milan for the anti-Berlusconi rally

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• Italian women have held protests nationwide and abroad against embattled Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Thousands of protesters marched in more than 60 towns and cities nationwide.

Some women carried banners reading "Italy is not a brothel", and said Mr Berlusconi had demeaned women with his recent sex scandals.

The premier denies attending sex parties and consorting with prostitutes, labelling the claims "disgusting" and politically motivated.

Smaller protests were also held on Sunday in Brussels, Madrid, Lisbon, Paris, Lyon and Toulouse in France, and as far afield as Tokyo.

Solidarity

Last week prosecutors in Milan applied to have Mr Berlusconi put on trial for allegedly paying for sex with an underage girl.

He denies paying for sex with a Moroccan nightclub dancer when she was 17, and abusing his power to get her released by police after she was detained in another case.

Protests have also been held in other countries, including one outside the Sacre Coeur in Paris

A magistrate will now decide if there is enough evidence to proceed to trial.

If convicted, Mr Berlusconi could face up to 15 years in prison.

Although frequenting prostitutes is not a crime in Italy, having sex with one under the age of 18 is an offence that carries a prison sentence.

Sunday's protests had a title - Se non ora, quando? (If not now, when?) - designed to express the frustration of those Italian women who are asking what it will take for Mr Berlusconi to resign, says the BBC's Duncan Kennedy in Rome.

Protests took place across Italy, including Rome, Naples, Palermo, Bari, Trieste and Venice.

'Italy says enough'

Rome's Piazza del Popolo - or People's Square - was crammed with tens of thousands of women and some men in an act of solidarity.

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• Profile: Silvio Berlusconi
• Timeline: Berlusconi in politics

"We are asking all women to defend the value of our dignity, and we are asking men, if not now, when?" organisers said on the protest website.

Marching through Naples, the mayor of the southern Italian city, Rosa Russo Iervolino, said: "The importance of this rally is in the common participation of men and women, young and old, intellectuals and workers."

One woman at a protest in Milan said Italian women had "become a joke to the rest of the world" because of the allegations surrounding Mr Berlusconi.

Some 400 men and women gathered outside the Sacre Coeur cathedral in Paris, banging pans and calling for Mr Berlusconi to resign, while in Madrid, protesters carried banners reading: "Italy says enough" and "My dignity is not for sale".

Despite all the recent negative publicity, Mr Berlusconi's opinion poll ratings are still at around 35%.

The billionaire prime minister also retains the support of his ruling coalition allies the Northern League, who do not want to see him quit, adds our correspondent.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12444131

Silvio Berlusconi the focus of day of protests by Italian women

Thousands join marches for respect and values in country with gender gap worse than Kazakhstan's

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• John Hooper in Rome
• guardian.co.uk, Sunday 13 February 2011 19.21 GMT
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Crowds in Rome's Piazza del Popolo protest against Silvio Berlusconi and sleaze in Italian society. Photograph: Alessandro Bianchi /Reuters

Mommy Mormon Bloggers

As usual, I was making my rounds in the blogging world and found this interesting article linked from Marci's blog:

Why I can't stop reading Mormon housewife blogs:

I'm a young, feminist atheist who can't bake a cupcake. Why am I addicted to the shiny, happy lives of these women?

Thought I would re-post it for anyone else who like to read it. It is very interesting!

We call upon Silvio Berlusconi to resign immediately from his post

1. Resignation.

We call upon Silvio Berlusconi to resign immediately from his post as Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri. In no other democratic country would a Prime Minister, faced with such serious legal accusations, remain in office longer than a few hours. All Italian citizens, of whatever political persuasion, must realise that the image of their country is profoundly tainted if Berlusconi remains in office.

2. Attendance in court.

We call upon Silvio Berlusconi not to defend himself on television, using his substantial mediatic power to discredit the magistrates, but to present himself in court and seek to defend himself there, as would any normal citizen. Once in court, he can in any case hope to benefit from the services of the highest paid lawyers in the country. We sincerely hope, for his sake and that of the country, that he is able to demonstrate his innocence. If he and his supporters reply that the judges are irremediably biased against him, we would like to point out that on more than one occasion in the past he has been given the benefit of the doubt by the courts. In the Mondadori case, for example, the court judged in 2001 his position as Head of Government to be part of the ‘extenuating circumstances’ which in his case alone allowed the crime to be prescribed.

3. The role of the President of the Republic

In a situation in which two of the principal powers of the state – the magistracy and the executive – are on a head-on collision course of considerable danger for the future of the Republic, we call upon its President to observe closely the situation and to be prepared to intervene actively, naturally within the limits of the powers ascribed to his office by the Constitution.

4. The opposition parties

We call upon all the parties of the opposition to put aside their differences and to abandon any jockeying for position, uniting instead their voices in a single request of a single word: RESIGNATION.

5. Civil Society

We invite the many associations and the hundreds of thousands of members of civil society to do the same, pooling their resources and joining hands on a single line of action. We would particularly appeal to Catholic civil society to deplore the hesitations and silences of the Vatican on so important an issue of public ethics.

6. The friends of Italy in the world

We have written this appeal in English as well as Italian in order to reach all those abroad who are friends of Italian democracy. Do not despair of Italy! The country needs your solidarity and help.

Gustavo Zagrebelsky, Paul Ginsborg e Sandra Bonsanti per tutta Libertà e Giustizia

http://www.libertaegiustizia.it/2011/01/20/resignation-firma-lappello-di-leg/?ref=HREA-1

More on the Psycho-Midget:

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