Silvio Berlusconi promises soccer team ‘bus full of whores’

Berlusconi, 86, served three different tenures as prime minister of Italy — 1994-1995, 2001-06 and 2008-11.

In 2011, Berlusconi was investigated for having sex with an underage prostitute at one of his notorious “bunga bunga” parties; he was ultimately acquitted when a judge determined that Berlusconi did not know the girl was underage.

The former prime minister is known for his bombast, and was taken aback by backlash for the remarks. On Instagram, he wrote that it was “locker room talk” and slammed his critics before wishing them a Merry Christmas.

“I honestly didn’t think, and no one could imagine, that a simple witty and clearly paradoxical ‘locker room’ joke I addressed to the football players of my Monza could provoke comments as malicious as banal and unrealistic,” Berlusconi wrote, as translated by Instagram. “I feel with these critics. Perhaps it is just their absolute lack of humor that makes them so sad and also so gratuitously evil in attacking those they consider enemies. But it’s Christmas time. So happy birthday to them too.”