For twenty years, Silvio Berlusconi monopolized the world’s view of Italy with its peculiar understanding of politics, with the headlines about its provocations and trials, its colorful scandals and affairs. Now the multi-billionaire, media entrepreneur and multiple Italian prime minister has died at the age of 86.
Of all the prime ministers that Italy, which has always been politically unstable, has had since the end of the Second World War, none has ruled the country as long as Berlusconi – a total of nine years. He repeatedly succeeded in leaping into power: in 1994, 2001, 2005 and 2008. Berlusconi was reputed to have cut a better figure as an election campaigner than as head of government: he was a master at seducing the people, a model for many populists. In doing so, he could count on the power of his own media: All three national commercial television channels in the country, which you don’t have to pay for, belong to his empire.
Though he kept getting new opportunities, Berlusconi failed as the country’s reformer that he always saw himself as. His bon mots were often ironic and disturbing at the same time. Once he said, “I am the Jesus Christ of politics.” Another time: “Only Napoleon has done more than me, but I’m taller.”
He got into politics in 1993 and managed to weld Italy’s right-wingers together into a bloc – from the post-fascists to the Lega Nord to the Christian Democrats of the former Democrazia Cristiana. Berlusconi made a significant contribution to the fact that the heterogeneous political system became bipolar and thus also somewhat more stable for two decades.
Berlusconi has not established a successor
His instinct for what the people wanted to hear consolidated the leadership role of the dazzling politician. But in the autumn of his career, Berlusconi’s strategic mistakes became more frequent. He failed to build a successor who could hold the camp together. Today, his own party is no longer at the helm, with Italy’s far-right governing the country instead. Berlusconi’s liberal Forza Italia party is now only a junior partner of the post-fascist Fratelli d’Italia and the right-wing populists of the Lega. He himself was not a minister in this alliance, but sat as a deputy in the Senate, the second Italian chamber of parliament.
Again and again Berlusconi was at the center of scandals about power, money and women. He was a permanent guest in the dock. He was convicted several times and temporarily banned from holding political offices.
The memory of an incredible rise will remain after most of the parties of the First Republic in Italy were mired in corruption at the beginning of the 1990s and this entertainer from Milan who never stopped laughing took the stage. Berlusconi made Italians feel like he could make their lives better, easier, freer, more fun.