Silvio Berlusconi is just like Hitler, says Italy's leading novelist..

Berlusconi is just like Hitler, says Italy's leading novelist..

Umberto Eco, one of Italy's best known novelists, has provoked uproar among Silvio Berlusconi's allies by comparing the Italian prime minister to Adolf Hitler.

Umberto Eco, one of Italy's best known novelists, has provoked uproar among Silvio Berlusconi's allies by comparing the Italian prime minister to Adolf Hitler.

The author of The Name of the Rose responded to a question about turmoil in the Middle East with an outburst against the Italian leader, who is mired in a series of sexual scandals.

Invited to compare Mr Berlusconi to Hosni Mubarak, the deposed president of Egypt, or Moammar Gadhafi, who is facing a revolt in Libya, Mr Eco, 79, chose a more controversial parallel.

"Intellectually speaking, a comparison could be made with Hitler, who also rose to power with free elections," he said.

"But Berlusconi is not a dictator like Mubarak or Gaddafi because he won the election with the support of a large majority of Italians."

Francesco Giro, the deputy culture minister, said it was shocking that Mr Eco had demonised the prime minister by comparing him with a bloodthirsty tyrant.

Mr Eco was speaking at the Jerusalem Book Fair, where he said Ian McEwan, the British novelist, should not have been put under pressure from activists to boycott the event because of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians.

When Mr Eco was asked about his own opinions of the conflict, he answered: "I have so much to say against the Italian government that I have no time to speak about the Israeli government."

Sandro Bondi, Italy's culture minister, said: "It is distressing that a man of culture like Eco should make such a provocative comparison, offending the truth as well as the sensibilities of millions of Italians, and that he did it in Jerusalem."

Osvaldo Napoli, an MP in Mr Berlusconi's People of Freedom party, said Mr Eco had "managed to offend Italians, Israelis and Italy's Jewish community".

Maurizio Ronconi, an MP with the opposition Christian Democrats, a conservative Roman Catholic party, said the award-winning writer had "made a fool of himself" and "lost his head".

It is not the first time Mr Eco, a philosopher and critic as well as an author, has criticized the prime minister.

In 2009, in an article for The Sunday Telegraph, he said "Italy's problem" was not just Mr Berlusconi himself, but the fact that millions of Italians had turned a blind eye to his misdemeanours.

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