Receives severe criticism Vittorio SgarbiItaly’s deputy minister of culture, for sexist comments he made during a speech at an event in Rome.

During the speech, the Italian politician, who is also a controversial art critic, used derogatory terms about women and boasted about the number of sexual partners he had.

“At some point, at 67, the prostate appears and you have to face this f***** whore you’ve never met in your life,” said Sgarbi, in a conversation he had with French novelist Michel Houellebecq on “The Phallus goes, the protector comes.”

A 45-minute video of the deputy minister’s comments, made at an event at the Maxxi contemporary art museum in Rome on June 21, has resurfaced in recent days in Italian media, including La Repubblica.

In the video he can also be heard saying that he had sex with nine women a month, while praising his penis as an “organ of knowledge”.

He even said that he doesn’t know exactly how many women he’s had sex with because his penis isn’t… a counter. However, doing the multiplication, in the end he said that he estimates his sexual partners to be around 1,500 at least.

Elsewhere in the debate he said of Berlusconi, who died a few weeks ago, that he had had sex with less than 100 women, which he called a tragedy

The video provoked strong reactions from Italian politicians, and from some who are members of the current government.

“If your aim was to provoke the bourgeois, you have chosen the wrong century,” said centrist MP Carlo Calenda. “You don’t shock us, we’re tired of you” he said.

Seeking to distance himself from the incident, Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano said that “freedom of thought, protected by our constitution, is sacred, but we must never reach vulgarity”.

“Respect for women is a constant in my life,” added Sangiuliano, whose government is led by Italy’s first female prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, according to Corriere della Sera.

An art critic by training, Sgarbi was close to former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, whom he considered a “friend”. Sgarbi had a long political career, which included a brief stint as an MEP from 1999 to 2001, where he was part of the conservative European People’s Party group.

Asked if he was at risk of being asked to resign, Sgarbi told the same newspaper that asking him to resign over “something like that” would be “censorship, true fascism”.