Silvio Berlusconi

Decision Points

Silvio Berlusconi,was born 29 September 1936. Silvio Berlusconi is an Italian politician, the current Prime Minister of Italy, as well as a successful entrepreneur. Silvio Berlusconi is also known under the nickname Il Cavaliere (literally, The Knight), due to the knighthood Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977.

Silvio Berlusconi is the second longest-serving Prime Minister of Italy, a position he has held on three separate occasions: from 1994 to 1995, from 2001 to 2006 and currently since 2008. Technically, Berlusconi has been sworn in four times because after a cabinet reshuffle, as happened with Berlusconi in 2005, the new ministry is sworn in and subjected to a vote of confidence. He is the leader of the People of Freedom political movement, a centre-right party he founded in 2009. As of November 2009, he is the longest-serving current leader of a G8 country. As of 2010, Forbes magazine has ranked him as the 74th richest man in the world with a net worth of USD 9 billion.

Silvio Berlusconi s political rise was rapid and surrounded by controversy. Silvio Berlusconi  was elected as a Member of Parliament for the first time and appointed as Prime Minister following the March 1994 snap parliamentary elections, when Forza Italia gained a relative majority a mere three months after having been officially launched. However, his cabinet collapsed after seven months, due to internal disagreements in his coalition. In the April 1996 snap parliamentary elections, Berlusconi ran for Prime Minister again but was defeated by centre-left candidate Romano Prodi. In the May 2001 parliamentary elections, he was again the centre-right candidate for Prime Minister and won against the centre-left candidate Francesco Rutelli. Berlusconi then formed his second and third cabinets, until 2006.

Silvio Berlusconi was leader of the centre-right coalition in the April 2006 parliamentary elections, which he lost by a very narrow margin, his opponent again being Romano Prodi. He was re-elected in the parliamentary elections of April 2008 following the collapse, on 24 January 2008, of Romano Prodi's government and sworn in as prime minister on 8 May 2008 (see also 2008 Italian political crisis).

According to Forbes, Silvio Berlusconi is Italy's third richest man, estimated to be worth $9.0 billion (US$) in 2010, owning assets in the fields of television, newspapers, publishing, cinema, finance, banking, insurance, and even sport. Silvio Berlusconi 's main company, Mediaset, comprises three national television channels, which together cover approximately a half of the national television sector; and Publitalia, the leading Italian advertising and publicity agency. Berlusconi also owns Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, the largest Italian publishing house, whose publications include Panorama, one of the country's most popular news magazines. His brother, Paolo Berlusconi, owns and operates il Giornale, a centre-right wing newspaper which provides a strong pro-Berlusconi slant on Italy and its politics. Il Foglio, one of the most influential Italian right-wing newspapers, is partially owned by his former wife, Veronica Lario. Berlusconi is also the founder and major shareholder of Fininvest, which is among the ten largest private companies in Italy and currently operates in media and finance. With Ennio Doris he founded Mediolanum, one of the country's biggest banking and insurance groups. He has interests in cinema and home video distribution (Medusa Film and Penta Film). He is also the owner of A.C. Milan, one of Italy's most decorated football teams.

Silvio Berlusconi has also bought a villa in Antigua. A Telegraph newspaper article speculated in November 2010 that he may move there if he is prosecuted for criminal activity.