Topolánek says holiday in Sardinia was “big mistake”

The former Czech prime minister, Mirek Topolánek, has described his holiday at the private villa of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi as a big mistake. Mr. Topolánek, whose Civic Democrats won the Czech elections to the EP, is fighting off an embarrassing scandal after the Spanish paper El Pais published a photo of him naked at Mr. Berlusconi’s private villa in Sardinia. After denying that any embarrassing photographs could exist of his visit last year, Mr. Topolánek admitted that he was the naked man in one of the photos, although he insists it had been modified and was not authentic. The Italian prime minister had gained an injunction to prevent up to 700 photographs of private parties at his Sardinian villa appearing in the Italian media. Mr. Topolánek who has been hounded by the Czech media for a statement, said it had been unwise to accept the invitation in the belief that he would have total privacy.