Berlusconi to Leave Hospital Four Nights After Attack at Rally

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will be released from a Milan hospital today after spending four nights recovering from an assault that left him with a fractured nose and broken teeth.

Berlusconi, 73, was kept in the hospital a day longer than had been expected because he was in pain and had difficulty eating, the premier’s personal doctor, Alberto Zangrillo, said yesterday. Berlusconi will leave the hospital later today, his spokesman Paolo Bonaiuti said.

“Berlusconi should be released either in the late morning or early afternoon,” Bonaiuti said in an interview broadcast live on RAINEWS24. “There’s no doubt” that the premier wants to get back to work, Bonaiuti said.

Berlusconi’s alleged attacker, Massimo Tartaglia, 42, is being held in Milan’s San Vittore jail. Tartaglia hurled an alabaster statuette of the city’s Gothic cathedral at the premier on Dec. 13 as he shook hands with supporters following a rally in Milan. After the attack, Berlusconi stood in the door of his car with blood dripping from his face before being rushed to hospital.

Doctors have ordered Berlusconi to rest for at least two weeks, which means he will miss political events both at home and abroad. He had planned to join 100 world leaders this week in Copenhagen for United Nations climate-change talks. He will also probably skip his traditional end-of-year press conference.
[Bloomberg]