Italy’s former head of government Silvio Berlusconi (82), after his political rehabilitation, wants to return to the top of his conservative Forza Italia in the European elections in May.
He runs out of „sense of responsibility“ to his country, Berlusconi announced at an election event in Sardinia today. Recently, the TV tycoon repeatedly warned against the danger of a government with the populist five-star movement.
The Forza Italia is on the decline and is currently weakening in the polls. In the parliamentary elections in March 2018, the party came to only 14 percent, in the latest polls, it is an average of 7.8 percent. It loses votes in favor of the Lega to Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, which comes according to recent surveys to a record high of 33 percent.
Forza Italia and Lega had jointly participated in the parliamentary elections as part of a center-right alliance. However, the Lega has entered into a governing coalition with the populist Five Star Movement. The Forza Italia has since been in opposition and is losing popularity.
Until a year ago, office ban
Berlusconi was excluded from political office until spring 2018. The reason was a conviction for tax evasion. The ban was lifted by a court in May, originally it was to apply until 2019. Berlusconi was already in the EU parliamentary elections in 1994, 1999, 2004 and 2009 started.
In Parliament in Strasbourg, however, he sat only from 1999 to 2001. In the other years, he had ceded his seat to a party colleague.
