USA TODAY International Edition
Berlusconi is back — despite past sex scandals, age and poor health
Former prime minister could be a kingmaker
“Berlusconi wants to see himself as a kind of ‘noble father’ figure, but he could also make a government collapse by pulling his support.”
Arianna Montanari, La Sapienza University
ROME – Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is hobbling toward one more political comeback, despite his age, poor health and scandalous legal problems.
Berlusconi, 81, was the dominant political figure for a generation of Italians, bursting onto the scene from the world of television and property development and heading four separate governments between 1994 and 2011.
Pundits wrote his political obituary after he resigned as prime minister seven years ago amid a personal scandal and with the country teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.
Now, ahead of the March 4 national election, the billionaire media tycoon is tapping into the rising tide of populist, nationalist sentiment across the globe — including in the United States, where President Trump has drawn comparisons to Berlusconi.
The Italian mogul is enjoying an unlikely political rebirth, despite being the host of infamous “bunga bunga” sex parties and being convicted of paying for sex with a minor, along with bribery, tax fraud and influence peddling. He was spared from jail because of his age, but he spent time under house arrest and performed community service at a retirement home.
“I think the lesson here is that it’s always risky deciding Berlusconi is finished,” said Alessandro Campi, a professor at the University of Perugia. “Every time people try to write him off, he emerges again as a protagonist.”
The seeds of revival were sown for the controversial octogenarian after
last year’s unexpectedly strong showing in regional Sicilian elections. Pollsters say Berlusconi’s party, Forza Italia, is running a strong third.
The leader of the center-left Democratic Party is another former prime minister, Matteo Renzi, 43. And the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement is headed by Luigi Di Maio, 31, a member of parliament.
Berlusconi is ineligible to become prime minister because of his legal woes. His remaining convictions could be overturned before the March vote, but his most likely role would be as kingmaker, with power to help set the government’s priorities, according to Giovanni Orsina, a historian with Rome’s LUISS University.
“Berlusconi could throw his support behind a possible coalition of parties in order to give them the majority needed to form a government,” Orsina said.
Berlusconi is a critic of Italy’s participation in the 19-nation euro currency zone. And this week he pulled a page from Trump’s playbook by vowing to expel as many as 600,000 migrants and to police the country’s border more closely if his party is part of the next government.
“If Forza Italia is in the government, it (expelling migrants) could happen,” said Arianna Montanari, a sociologist with La Sapienza University in Rome. “I think Berlusconi wants to see himself as a kind of ‘noble father’ figure, but he could also make a government collapse by pulling his support.”
Berlusconi’s supporters say they do not have illusions about their candidate.
“I know he’s no saint,” said Emmanuela Nucci, 59. “But he has the courage to bring up the real problems in the country, and he is the only one with the experience to get things done”