- Title: Ageing 'giant' Berlusconi seeks a lead role at Italy's election
- Date: 12th September 2022
- Summary: VENICE, ITALY (RECENT - SEPTEMBER 2022) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) REUTERS CHIEF CORRESPONDENT, CRISPIAN BALMER, SAYING: ''Silvio Berlusconi is one of the great survivors of Italian politics. He was thrown out of office ten years ago after a sex scandal, he lost a tax fraud case that made him leave parliament, he survived cancer, and last year he almost died of COVID. Yet here he is, at 86, back on the campaign trail leading his party into yet another election and he himself is standing for the Senate. That said, it is a greatly diminished Silvio Berlusconi that we're seeing. He is 86 years old, he's not doing the big stand-up sort of razzmatazz shows that he used to do in past elections. It's a much tighter, smaller campaign, mostly been carried out through newspaper interviews, television interviews, particularly with his own television stations, where he can be protected I think by his PR people and retain a very close focus on what he says and he wants his message to be.'' ROME, ITALY (RECENT - SEPTEMBER, 2022) (REUTERS) ROME CITY CENTER PEOPLE WALKING ON STREET POSTER OF LEADER OF 'BROTHERS OF ITALY' PARTY, GIORGIA MELONI ON BUS (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) ROME RESIDENT, (NAME NOT GIVEN) SAYING: ''I can't answer, because I would create a family quarrel, because my partner is very happy, while I sincerely have doubts.'' (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) ROME RESIDENT, FRANCESCO (SURNAME NOT GIVEN) SAYING: ''I think it's time for him (Berlusconi) to retire, at this point, it's useless to promise things that are only fake, in my opinion. That's all.'' (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) ROME RESIDENT, (NAME NOT GIVEN), SAYING: ''He didn't have a very good idea, he could have had a better one. I salute you because I am in a hurry.'' (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) ROME RESIDENT, (NAME NOT GIVEN), SAYING: ''(Berlusconi) knows that in his alliance now the best parties are Fratelli d'Italia and Forza Italia because they are people who have understood the mistakes made in the past.'' (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) ROME RESIDENT, (NAME NOT GIVEN), SAYING: ''By now he (Berlusconi) has reached the sunset.'' POSTER OF LEADER OF 'BROTHERS OF ITALY' PARTY, GIORGIA MELONI ON BUS ROME, ITALY (RECENT - AUGUST 2022) (REUTERS) SYMBOLS OF POLITICAL PARTIES DISPLAYED 'FORZA ITALIA' PARTY SYMBOL SYMBOLS OF POLITICAL PARTIES DISPLAYED 'BROTHERS OF ITALY' PARTY SYMBOL DEMOCRATIC PARTY SYMBOL SYMBOLS OF POLITICAL PARTIES DISPLAYED
- Embargoed: 26th September 2022 09:53
- Keywords: Election Forza Italia Go Italy Italy Silvio Berlusconi
- Location: VARIOUS, ITALY / INTERNET
- City: VARIOUS, ITALY / INTERNET
- Country: Italy
- Topics: Europe,Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA009342507092022RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Shrugging off old age, ill-health, sex scandals, and a criminal conviction, Silvio Berlusconi is in the thick of yet another Italian election campaign as the four-times prime minister battles for a central role after the vote.
Berlusconi, who will turn 86 four days after the Sept. 25 ballot, looks sure to be on the winning side, even if he is now the junior partner in the rightist alliance he used to dominate.
Opinion polls give his conservative Forza Italia party around 8% of the vote. That compares with 12% for Matteo Salvini's League and 24% for Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy, its two hard-right allies.
Together, the bloc should easily prevail over its divided leftist and centrist opponents, the polls suggest.
Meloni looks set to carry the most clout in a future coalition, but she will probably still need Berlusconi's support to get it off the ground, allowing him to punch above his weight in terms of policy decisions and government posts.
Berlusconi, who first ruled Italy in 1994, was widely written off after his last government was sunk 11 years ago by a debt crisis and scandal over his "bunga bunga" sex parties at his villa outside Milan.
He was convicted of tax fraud in 2013, had major heart surgery in 2016, became badly ill with COVID in 2020, and has been in and out of hospital over the last year with various ailments. He often slurs his words and is prone to confusion, yet retirement seems the last thing on the billionaire media magnate's mind.
Berlusconi unsuccessfully bid to become head of state in January and could be in the running for Senate speaker in the new parliament. Even without a formal role, he will be active behind the scenes to try to influence government policy.
He has cultivated an image as the more moderate leader in the rightist bloc, but his election pledges are as generous as ever, including minimum pensions of at least 1,000 euros ($991) per month and a single income tax rate of 23%.
Most analysts say these are unsustainable for Italy's fragile public finances.
He also contributed to the downfall of outgoing premier Mario Draghi, joining forces with the League and the 5-Star Movement, another ruling party, in refusing to back the former European Central Bank chief in a parliamentary confidence vote.
Berlusconi has strengthened his ties with League leader Salvini in an attempt to curb Meloni's dominance over the rightist bloc, but polls suggest she has continued to advance at her allies' expense.
Berlusconi has largely limited his media appearances ahead of the election to pre-recorded speeches and unchallenging interviews with the three national television channels he owns, yet these precautions are still not enough to avoid slip-ups.
This month he joined a rush of Italian politicians taking to TikTok to court younger voters, kicking off his short video with a typically cheery "hi guys, here I am", and admitting he was "a little envious" that most of his viewers would be under 30.
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