Silvio Berlusconi launches attack on Mario Monti and austerity Mr Berlusconi's planned comeback has been met with dismay and disbelief by the Italian media, commentators and the Roman Catholic Church. "The dinosaur returns and throws the country into chaos," said a lead editorial in Famiglia Cristiana, an influential Catholic magazine. The penny whistler is playing once again, with tantalising promises...that will halt the virtuous road towards reform. Politicians and the press in other European countries have also reacted negatively to his attempt at a re-launch. "The Mummy Returns" was the headline in Liberation, the French newspaper. Mr Monti, who has been reluctant to engage in verbal spats with Mr Berlusconi until now, fought back by defending the achievements of his 13-month technocrat government and saying Italy had to be "very careful" over its perception on the bond markets. Without naming Mr Berlusconi, he warned against appeals to populism in the run-up to the election and said there was "a tendency to over-simplify things, to present magical solutions." He said his administration of unelected academics and economists had "made great progress" but that it had come at a cost, admitting that "in the short term, there has not been growth." Mr Monti revealed that Italy's preoccupation with its borrowing costs and bond rates has been so prevalent in the last year that one of his grandchildren has been nicknamed "Spread" by his classmates. In a rare insight into his family life, he told a television channel: "The youngest of my daughter's three children was at home and saw a news programme on television and they were talking about the spread. And he said 'Mamma, but I'm Spread'. "The word has become so much a part of the common lexicon that they gave him this nickname," the former European Commissioner said. Business leaders and many Italians would like Mr Monti to stand as a candidate in the elections but he is remaining coy about his intentions, saying that it is not likely "at this stage." The likely winner of the elections, judging by recent polls, is the centre-Left Democratic Party, led by Pier Luigi Bersani, a former Communist. But he will face a strong challenge from Mr Berlusconi, who can harness all the might of his media empire for the election campaign, and who is seeking to rebuild a previous alliance with the Northern League party. The election campaign will be overshadowed by an ongoing sex trial in Milan in which Mr Berlusconi is accused of paying for sex with an alleged underage escort known as Ruby the Heart Stealer. Italian police launched a search for her on Monday when she failed to turn up as a witness in the trial. Yesterday it was reported that she could be in Mexico with her boyfriend, their baby daughter, and her boyfriend's parents. Italian media reported that she had "fled" to the resort of Playa del Carmen in order to avoid having to give evidence in the trial. Other reports said she was in France or Miami.