Italy’s Berlusconi looks set to return

Ex-prime minister back in limelight as possible kingmaker.

ROME — As recently as last year, Italians had written off Silvio Berlusconi as a polit- ical relic. But onstage for a talk show this month ahead of March 4 elections, the 81-year- old media tycoon and former prime minister appeared like a man reborn.

“How do I look?” he asked the studio audience as he settled in on a cushioned chair. “Just fine!” a woman shouted back.

Berlusconi was forced out as Italy’s leader in 2011 amid a debt crisis. He can’t hold office until next year because of a tax-fraud conviction. But those missteps have receded, as have memories of the bawdy “bunga bunga” parties he frequented — Berlusconi called them “elegant dinners” — and he was cleared of charges of paying for sex with a minor.

Now, the man who con- verted a media empire into a political force long before Donald Trump’s ascension to the U.S. presidency is making a comeback as a potential kingmaker.

Much about this encore per- formance is unlikely. Surgeons have buffed the battle scars and wrinkles off Berlusconi’s face, giving him an improbably youthful air. He remains savvy, parrying tough questions on television with ease. More surprising for a man who symbol- izes Italy’s political past: In a too-split-to-call election, the right-wing coalition he heads is thought to have the best chance of garnering the 40 percent of votes needed for a governing majority.

“We’ve won the election, haven’t we?” Berlusconi crowed on the late-night show when interviewer Bianca Berlinguer noted that he had captured 42 percent of the votes of viewers who called in to express their views on his message.

That message — a red-meat program of slashing taxes, booting out immigrants and restoring Italy’s standing in the world — drew repeated applause from the studio audience, which included members of the youth movement of Berlusconi’s party.

The reception underscored the remarkable turnaround Berlusconi has experienced. His personal approval rating hovers near 24 percent, according to an average compiled by polling firm Termometro Politico — far from its onetime heights. But as his younger rivals have crashed into irrelevance, Berlusconi has maneuvered back into the spotlight with a veteran’s agility.

“His charisma overcomes his age,” said Pietrangelo Massaro, 34, the coordinator of Berlusconi’s campaign in Rome’s working-class Ostiense neighborhood. “The evolution of the skin and the face doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t change what’s in his head.”

Now Berlusconi, who declined a request for an interview, has ushered his Forza Italia party into a grouping with two smaller right-wing parties in a bid to see an ally installed as premier. One partner, the Northern League, wants to close Italy’s borders to most immigrants and campaigns against Islam. The founders of the other, Brothers of Italy, were members of the successor to Italy’s Fascist Party. The coalition has promised big raises in pensions, a guaranteed minimum income of $1,250 a month for working-age adults, a steep tax cut and tough measures against economic migrants.