London: Silvio Berlusconi once joked that when a pollster asked Italian women if they would have sex with him, 33 per cent said ‘Yes’, and the remainder replied: “Again?”

The billionaire property tycoon, media magnate and three-time prime minister of Italy has displayed an obsession with staying young through make-up, hair transplants and alleged facelifts.

Former Italian PM Berlusconi waves to media.Credit:AP

And now, at almost 86, having been convicted of tax fraud, expelled from the Senate and officially barred from public office, his name will once again appear on ballot papers for the general elections on September 25.

His centre-right Forza Italia party is expected to poll up to 10 per cent, casting him as a likely kingmaker in the next government.

“I think that, in the end, I will be presenting myself as a candidate for the Senate, so that all these people who asked me will finally be happy,” he told RAI radio earlier this month.

After withdrawing support for the coalition led by former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi in July, Berlusconi’s party is poised to return to power as part of a right-wing coalition led by Giorgia Meloni’s neo-fascist Brothers of Italy, and including Matteo Salvini’s anti-immigration League.

From left, Silvio Berlusconi, Giorgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini address a rally in Rome.Credit:AP

Berlusconi, who says sorting out who leads the coalition should happen after the election, has dismissed suggestions he is worried about the possibility of Meloni, 45, whose motto is “God, country and family”, becoming prime minister.

Noting the agreement between the parties that whoever wins the most votes chooses the prime minister, he said: “If it is Giorgia, I am sure she will prove capable of the difficult task.” She would be the first woman to hold the office.

Berlusconi has urged voters to back his party, casting himself as a responsible pro-EU, centrist amid a surge of nationalist populism. Someone who could make a right-wing coalition more moderate.

“Every vote for Forza Italia will strengthen the moderate, centrist profile of the coalition,” he told Il Giornale, a daily newspaper owned by his family.

Berlusconi first served as prime minister from 1994 to 1995, then again in 2001-2006 and 2008-2011. He has dominated public life for even longer, as head of a vast media and sports empire which has included the country’s largest private television network, newspapers, football team AC Milan, a film distribution company and an advertising buying firm.

In younger days: Silvio Berlusconi (left) and Vladimir Putin at the latter’s country residence in Zavidovo, outside Moscow, in 2003.

He was elected to the European Parliament in 2019 but has rarely attended it. He remains on trial over corruption charges for allegedly paying guests to lie about his notorious “bunga-bunga” sex parties while prime minister. This reportedly involved orgies in the basement of his villa near Milan, complete with pole dancing and striptease. He denies the allegations.

In a short-lived tilt at becoming president earlier this year, he even introduced himself to some younger, independent MPs and senators as “the bunga-bunga guy”.

His comeback is the result of his “sense of duty”, he told news website Politico, in written answers to questions last week. He said Italy needed the values that only his party represents to restart the economy.

“My parents taught me that when I feel strongly in me the sense of duty to do something, I must find the courage to do it,” he said.

In March this year, he pledged his devotion to his 32-year-old girlfriend, Forza Italia MP Martina Fascina, in a symbolic “festival of love” ceremony. But he’s yet to officially tie the knot amid an inheritance row with his family. She is the deputy leader of his party.

His social media campaign has played on 1990s nostalgia and a strong pitch of tax cuts and higher pensions. And even without a formal institutional role, if his party polls as high as pollsters predict, Berlusconi will hold considerable power in the next government.

Brothers of Italy is comfortably ahead of the other two parties, with polls suggesting it will attract about 24 per cent of the vote, while the League is on 12 per cent and Forza Italia about 8 per cent.

Martina Fascina and AC Monza president Silvio Berlusconi (in the hat) sit in the stands during a match between his team and Parma Calcio in Monza, Italy. Credit:Getty Images

After a decade of political instability, it appeared Draghi had steadied the government and secured the trust of the EU as Rome looked to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. But his cabinet became increasingly fractious and his strong stance on Russian sanctions and oil and gas embargoes had made some of his power-sharing government nervous, sparking speculation the Kremlin may have played a hand in bringing down the government.

Both Berlusconi and Salvini have traditionally been close to the Russian president. A Naples tie maker claimed in May that a blue and white spotted tie worn by Putin at Russia’s Victory Day parade was a gift from Berlusconi. The pair have stayed in each other’s holiday homes and skied together.

Other gifts have included a four-poster bed from Putin to Berlusconi, which an escort wrote about in a tell-all book claiming she had sex in with the Italian leader in 2008. Berlusconi was said to have given Putin a doona cover featuring a life-sized image of both of them.

After the collapse of Draghi’s reign, Italian newspapers reported that both Berlusconi and Salvini’s parties had contact with the Russian embassy in the weeks leading to withdrawing their support, despite the war in Ukraine. Berlusconi has denied talking to the Russian ambassador while the League has denied any wrongdoing.

Two former prime ministers, Enrico Letta and Matteo Renzi, have called for an inquiry into the alleged interference by the parliament’s intelligence committee.

Letta, now head of the centre-left Democratic Party, said Berlusconi and Salvini must explain their relationship with the Kremlin.

“We want to know if it was Putin who brought down the Draghi government,” he said. “If that was the case, it would be of the utmost gravity.”

Stefano Stefanini, Italy’s former ambassador to NATO, said last week that Salvini and Berlusconi clearly had sentiments of friendship and ties with Putin’s Russia.

“Their support for the Italian, European and NATO position on Ukraine has been, at best, halfhearted,” he said.

Berlusconi says he would “not participate in any government” if he was not absolutely sure of its “democratic correctness, sense of responsibility and loyalty to Europe and the West”.

The outcome of the election could reverberate across Europe, and beyond. Under Draghi, Italy stood firmly alongside Germany and France in a show of European unity against Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. A new Italian government could send a much murkier message, altering the dynamic for Europe.

Leila Simona Talani, a professor at the Centre for Italian Politics at King’s College London, said it was unclear how a new government that included Salvini and Berlusconi would position itself on Russia, despite pledging to maintain support for Ukraine’s struggle and deepen integration with the EU.

“It’s possible that they will be not so much in favour of sending weapons to Ukraine and sustain the effort against Russia,” she said. “It is not totally clear: they agree and say that they are obviously pro-Atlantic Alliance, supportive of the US, but I don’t think we really know.”

Talani said Draghi’s resignation was not the disaster that has been described because an early election would give a fresh mandate to a new government and avoid months of stalemate and instability.

“The elections will be quick, which is good for international investors too, and it’ll be a shorter campaign,” she said. “The elections were in another six to eight months, so this is a moment that had to come. Now there should be a new government by October, which is better than a very heavy long campaign.”

Talani said it was not clear that the right-wing parties would form a majority and did not rule out a broader group made up of people from the centre, left and centre-right succeeding instead. But she said it didn’t matter that a potential right-wing populist government called itself “pro-EU”, the real problem would be their policies.

“For example, the problem is, they want to introduce tax changes, which is very low for everyone at the same level,” she said. “Which means that we will not have enough money to repay the debt and we’ll be in trouble… which will not help us in Europe.”

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