Italian election: Will Silvio Berlusconi win Italy’s election? Who is Forza Italia leader?

Silvio Berlusconi is the founder of liberal Forza Italia (Go Italy) party and the leader of centre-right wing coalition, composed of right-wing parties Matteo Salvini’s Northern League and Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers Of Italy. 

He returned to the political scene in March 2017, four years after he was convicted of tax-fraud, when he announced he would run again for the premiership. 

Although he has held the office of PM four times, his tax fraud conviction bars him from becoming prime minister for the fifth time until 2019 – but winning the election would position the liberal once again as an influential kingmaker in Italian politics.  

“Berlusconi has 12 or 13 lives, he’s like a cat squared,” said former premier Matteo Renzi, his political adversary and leader of centre-left wing Partito Democratico (Democratic Party). 

Italian election 2018 latest polls: Who will win the general election in Italy next week?

Berlusconi has 12 or 13 lives, he’s like a cat squared

Democratic Party leader Matteo Renzi


Who is Silvio Berlusconi? 

Silvio Berlusconi was born in 1936 in Milan to Luigi, a banker employee father, and Rosa, a housewife mother who, until her death in 2010, often appeared in the media to defend his son and praise his virtues. 

He began his career as a vacuum cleaner salesman, and while studying law at the Università degli Studi in Milan he worked as a cruise ship crooner, singing Nat King Cole and entertaining crowds with jokes. 

He said to biographer Alan Friedman: “I had a repertoire of 150 different songs and I took requests from the audience”. 

During the 1970s he founded construction company Edilnord, with which he made a name for himself as a residential housing developer. 

Silvio Berlusconi smiling during a TV talk showGETTY

Silvio Berlusconi is the founder of Forza Italia party and the leader of centre-right wing coalition

He then expanded to media, launching in the 1980s Telemilano, the forerunner of powerful media empire Mediaset, which today gather under its name Italy’s three largest private TV stations. 

By the 1990s, Mr Berlusconi was one of the most influential men in Italy. 

Silvio Berlusconi made his political debut in 1993, founding Forza Italia during one of Italy’s most troubled periods. 

During the early 1990s, the country was being hit by a wave of mob attacks and by a financial crisis. 

Mr Berlusconi presented himself as an outsider in a moment where the old political class was seen by the public as corrupt and, just three months after launching his party, he was elected prime minister. 

Silvio Berlusconi at a rallyGETTY

Mr Berlusconi founded his liberal party Forza Italia in 1993

However the liberal’s troubles with the law started during his first government when he was charged by a Milan court for alleged tax fraud. 

This, together with rivalries within his coalition, led to the collapse of his first political experiment seven months later. 

Mr Berlusconi was elected again in 2001 and 2008, with a revamped version of Forza Italia, Popolo delle Libertà (People of Freedom), leading Italy for nine years in total and becoming Italy’s longest-serving prime minister since World War II. 

His success in the business world and the glorious years lived by his football team played up his reputation as a winner.

Together with the power of its TV stations able to broadcast him into millions of homes, they helped his political career. 

He often stated he went into politics just for the love of his country, adding: “I don’t need to go into office for the power. I have houses all over the world, stupendous boats… beautiful airplanes, a beautiful wife, a beautiful family… I am making a sacrifice”.  

In early 2013, when his allies backed Enrico Letta’s centre-left wing government, the liberal re-launched his original party Forza Italia, but hadn’t enough support to be relevant in the political ring. 

On August 1, 2013, Italy’s supreme court condemned him to four years for tax fraud (commuted into community services because he was older than 75) and barred from public office, which led many to think his political career was over. 

The liberal also became famous for boasting about his friendships with late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin.  

Silvio Berlusconi and Veronica LarioGETTY

Silvio Berlusconi with his second wife Veronica Lario

Mr Berlusconi is most known, however, for his relationships with women. 

Twice-divorced, he never made a secret of his passion for the opposite sex. 

The liberal divorced from his first wife Carla Elvira Dall’Oglio in 1985, years after he met his future second wife Veronica Lario. 

Mrs Lario then filed divorce papers after Mr Berlusconi was photographed at the 18th birthday party of aspiring model Noemi Letizia, while also accusing him of selecting a “trashy” list of candidates for the European Parliament. 

Silvio Berlusconi during a rallyGETTY

Projections show that Mr Berlusconi’s coalition is currently leading with 36 per cent of the vote

Will Silvio Berlusconi win the Italian election? 

The latest projections show his coalition is leading with 36 per cent of the vote, bringing Mr Berlusconi closer to win his seventh electoral campaign. 

Forza Italia came out a winner in races taking place in late 2017 who saw it against centre-left incumbents, such as the battle for mayor of Genoa and the governorship of Sicily. 

In a Europe where populist movements such as Five-Star are growing their popularity, some analysts think Italian could choose the reassuring, tried-and-tested party of Mr Berlusconi. 

Mr Berlusconi certainly agrees. He recently tweeted: “I’m like a good wine, with age, I only improve, now I’m perfect”.