Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has been attacked relentlessly by both the Italian and foreign press for allegedly improper behavior with a teenage girl and encounters with an Italian escort, says he doesn’t have to ask forgiveness from anyone, not even his own family.

“The Prime Minister does not have have skeletons in the closet; the Prime Minister cannot be blackmailed,” Berlusconi said, referring to himself.  “He doesn’t have to ask forgiveness, not even from his own family members.”

The 72-year-old Berlusconi made the comments in a news conference before the summer break, saying that the attacks on him were an organized campaign of “calumny and trash.”

Berlusconi is currently being divorced by his second wife, Veronica Lario, who has accused him of cavorting with underage women.  The Prime Minister has denied any improper relationship with Noemi Letizia, after it was revealed that he attended her 18th birthday party and gave her a $8,600 necklace as a gift. Berlusconi has steadfastly refused to apologize for anything in his private life; he has simply maintained that he’s never paid for sex, and that he’s “not a saint.”

Berlusconi’s daughter Barbara, 25, told Vanity Fair this week that politicians should be coherent in their public and private lives–an apparent criticism of her own father. But Berlusconi dismissed that on Friday, saying that Barbara loves him “with all her soul.”

While tapes have been released that apparently recount a conversation between Berlusconi and an escort, Patrizia D’Addario, during the night she says she spent with him at his home in Rome, the scandal has barely hurt Berlusconi, whose government is as strong as ever. While left-wing parties have tried to bring him down over the sex charges, most Italians don’t seem to care about who Berlusconi brings into his bedroom.