Almost 86, Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi makes a political comeback
- Italy’s former premier Silvio Berlusconi wins seat in Senate almost a decade after tax fraud conviction
- Three-term premier succeeded in gaining a new space on Italy’s political stage, thanks partly to TikTok
Just in time to celebrate his 86th birthday, former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi is making his return to Italy’s parliament, winning a seat in the Senate nearly a decade after being banned from holding public office over a tax fraud conviction.
Berlusconi, who has made personal comebacks a hallmark of Italian politics for three decades, was re-elected to Italy’s upper house with more than 50 per cent of the votes Sunday in the northern city of Monza, where he also owns a soccer team that was recently promoted to Italy’s top division.
While overall his party lost ground compared with the 2018 general elections, it fared better than expected and Berlusconi’s victory was particularly heartfelt.
“Regaining a seat in the Senate was a sort of personal revenge for Berlusconi, after all the judicial problems he went through,” said Massimiliano Panarari, political analyst at Rome’s Mercatorum University.
In 2013, the Senate expelled Berlusconi because of a tax fraud conviction stemming from his media business, and he was banned from holding public office for six years. After he served a sentence of community service, a court ruled he could once again hold public office and he won a seat in the European Parliament in 2019.
His third and last premiership had ended abruptly in 2011, when financial markets lost confidence that the billionaire media magnate could manage Italy’s finances during Europe’s sovereign debt crisis.
