ROME – In his ninth decade, sacked by legal problems and suffering from poor health, Italian billionaire media tycoon and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is hobbling toward one more political comeback. Berlusconi 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 head of government seven years ago amid the stench personal scandal and the country teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.
But now, months from his 82nd birthday, Berlusconi is tapping into the rising tide of populist, nationalist sentiment across the world – including in the U.S., where President Donald Trump, has drawn comparisons to Berlusconi – and despite being the host of infamous “Bunga Bunga” sex parties and having been convicted of paying for sex with a minor, bribery, tax fraud, and influence peddling, the mogul is enjoying an unlikely political rebirth.
“I think the lesson here is that it’s always risky deciding Berlusconi is finished,” said Alessandro Campi, a professor specializing in history of political thought at the University of Perugia. “Every time people try to write him off he emerges again as a protagonist.”
The seeds of the revival of the fortunes of the controversial octogenarian were sown after an unexpectedly strong showing in regional Sicilian elections last year. And with a national vote scheduled for March 4, pollsters say Berlusconi’s party – Forza Italia, named for a popular soccer cheer – is running a strong third behind two other leading parties.
Those parties, the center-left Democratic Party and the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement are headed, respectively, by Matteo Renzi, another former prime minister, and party functionary and parliamentarian Luigi Di Maio. Renzi and Di Maio’s are a combined 73 years of age, nearly a decade younger than Berlusconi.
Unlike Renzi and Di Maio, Berlusconi is ineligible to become prime minister because of his legal woes. Though he could in theory have his remaining convictions overturned before the March vote, the most likely role for the controversial octogenarian, according to Giovanni Orsina, a historian with Rome’s LUISS University, is as a kingmaker with power to help set the government’s priorities.
“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. “In that way, he could help influence the agenda even without an official role.”
That could be worrying for many in the European Union, as Berlusconi is a critic of Italy’s continued 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 more closely police the country’s border if his party is part of the next government.
“If Forza Italia is in the government it could happen,” said Arianna Montanari, a sociologist and political scientist 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.”
No party is likely to reach the 40-percent threshold that would guarantee it a majority in parliament. If that is indeed the case, it would require parties to cobble together a coalition government.
According Maria Rossi, co-director of the polling firm Opinioni, Renzi’s Democratic Party and Di Maio’s Five-Star Movement both register support from around a quarter of voters. Berlusconi’s Forza Italia is the next largest party, with support approaching 20 percent of the electorate, followed another populist party, the Northern League, with around 12 percent support, and a host of other parties in single digits.
Rossi said Berlusconi’s support might turn out to be higher than polls indicate, since some respondents might be embarrassed to confess their political leanings.
“Here we go again,” said Sandro Romano, 41, a Roman coffee bar worker. “Enough! Anyone who votes for Forza Italia is voting for a dysfunctional government that will leave everyone worse off by the time it collapses.”
Virginia Ascione, a 39-year-old book editor from Naples, agreed, saying it was time for Italy to look forward.
“Berlusconi is very old, he’s a convicted criminal, and he should probably be in prison,” Ascione said. “I left Italy and moved to London back in 2009 because I felt Italy was becoming a joke under Berlusconi’s leadership. He represents the past, and it’s time to move on.”
Even Americans in Italy say they find Berlusconi’s rising support puzzling.
“I can’t say I follow Italian politics closely, but it certainly seems odd to me that a lot of Italians are once again willing to consider supporting a person with these kinds of character issues,” said Spencer Mann, a 33-year-old IT consultant from Washington DC.
Berlusconi’s supporters say they do not have illusions about their candidate, but claim he is the best option in a field of flawed contenders.
“I know he’s no saint,” said 59-year-old Emmanuela Nucci, an in-home health care worker. “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. Everyone else is trying to figure that out. We need an adult.”
Photo: Italian billionaire media tycoon and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is hobbling toward one more political comeback
Credit: ARA Network Inc.
Photo/story publish date: 03/02/2018
A version of this story was published in USA Today.
