Carfagna denies pleasuring Berlusconi

Mara Carfagna, Italy’s beautiful equal opportunities minister, has launched a legal action against a comic actress who claimed Mara performed oral sex for her boss Silvio Berlusconi in return for political advancement. The claim was made by Sabina Guzzanti, whose father is an MP for Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, at a rally held by the anti-sleaze party Italy of Values, which opposes the Italian prime minister’s plans to pass new laws suspending trials and banning prosecutions of senior public figures.

It is known to be one of the revelations in a series of bugged phone conversations Berlusconi had with Agostino Sacca, the head of the state-owned TV company RAI, in which he tried to persuade him to give jobs to actresses he referred to as his "little butterflies".

Carfagna, 32, a former topless model and beauty queen, said the claims were "fanciful". For his part, Berlusconi said: "Let’s not talk about it." It is not the first time Carfagna has caused problems for the Italian leader. Last year he confessed that he fantasised about marrying her, an admission that led to him having to apologise in public to his wife, Veronica Lario.