Berlusconi Stages Latest Comeback to Fix Italy’s Broken Politics
(Bloomberg) -- At 82, Silvio Berlusconi isn't ready to give up on Italian politics.
The man who dominated government affairs in Italy for almost two decades is ready to play his part for his country once again, shrugging off a persistent drop in the polls and the success Matteo Salvini's anti-migration League party has had in siphoning off right-wing support.
Silvio Berlusconi Is Back! Running for European Elections
Berlusconi's latest initiative isn't a party, “but a federation of civil society, center-right forces and associations against the left and the Five Star Movement,” called L'Altra Italia, or The Other Italy, Berlusconi said in an interview with his family-owned newspaper Il Giornale on Thursday.
The former four-time premier said the initiative is a way to react to “the constant deterioration of Italian politics,” referring to the continuous clashes between the League and the anti-establishment Five Star, which formed an awkward governing coalition more than a year ago. Berlusconi said the new alliance would be needed to repair Italy's economic problems and to reverse the country's isolation within the European Union.
Slipping Polls
Berlusconi's popularity has waned, with his Forza Italia party garnering 6.5% of votes in a July 30 SWG poll. That compares to the League's 38% of support, and below Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy, once the minority party in the center-right coalition.
The initiative is just the latest for Italy's comeback king, who earlier this year returned to the political stage by winning a seat in the European Parliament.
Berlusconi, who founded Forza Italia in 1994, has been without a parliamentary seat in Rome since the Senate invalidated his 2013 election because of his fraud conviction in a Milan court the previous year. During his decades-long political career he has faced 37 trials. He said he has spent about 770 million euros in legal fees.
Forza Italia was part of a broader center-right alliance which included the League in the country's general election last year, but the group broke down after Salvini agreed to join forces with Five Star Movement's Luigi Di Maio to create the government coalition currently in power.
To contact the reporter on this story: Chiara Albanese in Rome at calbanese10@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, ;Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Richard Bravo, Chris Reiter
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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