"I got furious. I told Cossiga, 'I'll sue,' and he said, 'You're right, when you win, you can offer me champagne.'"

Federica Sciarelli talks about when she was accused of having a flirt with the former President of the Republic, Francesco Cossiga. She does so in an interview with Corriere della Sera: at the time «I was a political reporter and I followed Cossiga: a crazy experience. Cossiga, however, spoke every five minutes, there was never a moment of relaxation». The President, she adds, « taught me the art of reasoning, he always knew how to go further. When he said “the parties are finished” they called him a pickaxe, but he had already understood everything».

When the weekly magazine Panorama wrote that they were having an affair: «I got furious. I told Cossiga “I’ll sue”, he said: “You’re right, when you win, you can offer me champagne” . The lawsuit was very tough, I was really upset by that article, false and slanderous. I was a young girl who had won a competition and that piece hurt me immensely. I thought: “What a disgusting environment”, I wanted to give up everything. But I went on».

"Their line of defense - she continues - was that the relationship with Cossiga was a joke. I was increasingly furious. That episode taught me that you have to keep the course straight in life ."

When she won the case, "I got an incredible compensation, and I bought a house. Then a lot of satisfaction. I was in tears. I told my parents right away, dad was very, very sick. He could only say to me: 'Congratulations Federica', then he went into a coma."

(Unioneonline/D)

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