Two weeks after his 86th birthday and nine years after he was expelled from the Senate for tax fraud, Italy’s four-time Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is returning to the political scene. “Here I am again in the Senate: I just finished the registration paper,” the media mogul tweeted.
“Tomorrow I will attend the first session of this 19th term in the Senate,” Berlusconi said in his tweet. In the accompanying photo, the media mogul signs the documents for recognition as a senator elected to the Senate of the conservative Forza Italia party in a constituency in the Lombard city of Monza.
Berlusconi’s Forza Italia received a disappointing 8.3 percent of the vote in the election. But Forza Italia is now almost as strong as the allied right-wing populist Lega, which lost many votes in the coalition’s internal competition with Giorgia Meloni’s “Brothers of Italy” (FdI – Fratelli d’Italia) and fell to nine percent. In the coalition led by the right-wing conservative Meloni, Berlusconi, whose party belongs to the European People’s Party (EPP), wants to play a mediating role with Brussels.
Interim end of career after a series of scandals
The media mogul was prime minister of Italy four times between 1994 and 2011. He is the only prime minister in Italy since World War II to rule for a full five-year term. His second government, between 2001 and 2006, was the longest-lasting cabinet in Italy’s republican history. His fourth government fell in 2011 after a string of sex scandals and Berlusconi’s conviction for tax fraud. In 2013, he was expelled from the Senate in Rome after being convicted of tax fraud and sentenced to four years in prison.
Partner is 54 years younger than Berlusconi
Berlusconi’s 32-year-old partner, Marta Fascina, also made it to the Chamber of Deputies in a Sicilian constituency. The southern Italian was already a member of parliament in Rome during the last legislature.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
