Berlusconi is back

Apr 15, 2008, 0:06 GMT

Italy\'s 71-year-old media magnate Silvio Berlusconi waves after casting his ballot at a downtown Milan polling station 13 April 2008. EPA/DANIEL DAL ZENNARO

Rome - Silvio Berlusconi triumphed Monday for a third time in Italian elections - his fifth since turning to politics - defying those who view the billionaire-turned-politician as a 71-year-old has-been.

His return as prime minister, two years after he last held the post, promises to put one of Europe's most colourful, controversial and politically longevous leaders back on the world stage.

'People like me for what I am, and I'm not a politician,' says Berlusconi, who once compared himself to Jesus Christ.

Berlusconi won a comfortable edge over his centre-left rival, Walter Veltroni, in both branches of parliament.

Since Berlusconi first entered politics in 1994, when he won his first election, his rallying cry has remained the same: that he alone can cure Italy of maladies that have been brought upon by a combination of what he calls 'bureaucrats' and 'Communists'.

Ahead of this election, he vowed that his priority as premier would be to clear the rubbish from the streets of Naples and then turn his attention to slashing taxes.

Other pledges have included keeping ailing flagship carrier Alitalia in Italian hands and building a bridge to link Sicily to the mainland.

'Tired rhetoric' is how his rival, the 52-year-old Veltroni, described them.

But Italians have turned again to Berlusconi, even if it remains unclear how the man they call Il Cavaliere plans to resolve their country's deep-rooted economic woes.

These include near-zero economic growth, rising inflation, a high budget deficit, falling competitiveness and low consumer confidence.

During the campaign, Berlusconi also had little to say on ridding Italy of the scourge of organized crime gangs, including the Mafia, that continue to thrive in Italy's impoverished South.

Instead, he praised a convicted mobster for refusing to implicate him in an inquiry dating back to the days when he was still only a businessman.

During his last five-year stint in power - from 2001 to 2006, a record length for modern Italy - Berlusconi frequently complained that his ability to govern was hobbled by leftist magistrates bent on carrying out a political vendetta against him.

A common criticism is that he spent too much time on laws designed to protect his vast media empire and prevent him from being convicted.

During the latest campaign, Berlusconi showed he was still spoiling for a fight with magistrates by suggesting that they need their sanity checked.

'One of the things he is most likely to do when he wins is to complete the job of bringing the judiciary under the heel of the executive, thus destroying the balance of powers in the Italian democratic state,' predicts Paul Ginsborg, a historian and political analyst based in Florence.

Another frequent complaint he made during his previous tenure in office was that his hands were tied by less-reform minded coalition allies.

This time round, he finds himself back in power together with his long-time ally, the federalist and xenophobic Northern League, which thanks to a strong showing in the election is set to have greater clout on future government policy.

One area where he is bound to face problems is over the Northern League's insistence on devolving more powers to local authorities - an issue that is frowned upon by his other longtime ally, the post-fascist National Alliance.

Born in Milan to a bank official and a secretary in 1936, Berlusconi emerged as a real estate tycoon in the early 1970s. By the end of the decade, he also owned several local television stations.

The stage was set for Berlusconi to extend his media empire in the mid-1980s, when then-prime minister Bettino Craxi - a close friend who later fled the country to avoid facing corruption charges - opened the national airwaves to private broadcasters.

Along the way, the former cruise ship crooner acquired top-flight football club AC Milan, world fame and intense scrutiny from Italy's judiciary.

In 1994, in the wake of the 'Bribesville' corruption scandal implicating the governing Christian Democrats and Socialists, Berlusconi formed Forza Italia and won elections in coalition with other conservative parties later that year.

While his first term as premier lasted just seven months - the government collapsed when the Northern League defected - he patched up relations with his former allies and was back in power in 2001.

On the foreign front, Berlusconi supported the US invasion of Iraq, a stance that won praise in Washington and opposition back home.

In 2003, when his government held the rotating presidency of the European Union, he made global headlines by likening a German member of the European Parliament to a Nazi concentration camp guard.

Italians who saw their purchasing power decline under his government handed him defeat in the 2006 elections.

But the demise of Romano Prodi's centre-left government in February has paved the way for a rapid comeback.