Speaking with lawmakers inside the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Italy's parliament, Mr. Berlusconi dismissed rumors that he planned to launch a second political party by joking that, if he did, the group would be named after the sexually explicit word, according to Italian media reports that were confirmed by an aide to the premier.
The remarks drew immediate rebuke across Italy's political opposition at a time when the premier's conduct has come under close scrutiny. Mr. Berlusconi's conservative People of Freedom Party has been besieged by criticism over the billionaire media mogul's lavish parties. Analysts and business leaders have also begun to question whether Mr. Berlusconi's flamboyant governing style is compounding investor concerns over the size of Italy's EUR1.9 trillion ($2.53 trillion) debt and stagnant economic growth.
"We can no longer tolerate a prime minister who, in a grave moment of domestic and international crisis, assaults the institutions of the Italian state and who looks after only his own interests while making jokes of dubious taste," said Anna Finocchiaro, a senator for the center-left Democratic Party.
Mr. Berlusconi has often made bawdy jokes, particularly when responding to criticism of his private life. The premier has long said he prefers to spend his evenings relaxing in the company of female dancers and models, some of whom he has brought into his political ranks. The premier is on trial in Milan for allegedly paying a then-17-year-old girl for sex, a charge he has repeatedly denied, adding that the girl was simply a guest at his palatial villa.
Alessandra Mussolini, the granddaughter of former Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and a lawmaker allied with Mr. Berlusconi, played down the comment.
"The premier made a joke, and I appreciated it. I found it splendid. It means he considers us protagonists at the center" of his ranks, she said.
*Write to*Stacy Meichtry atstacy.meichtry at wsj.com <mailto:stacy.meichtry at wsj.com>
-- Adorno: "And in that sense the difference between thinking and eating roast goose is not so very great. The one thing can stand in for the other."
Horkheimer: "But eating roast goose is not the same thing as doing theory."