Italian PM faces confidence vote

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Italian PM faces confidence vote

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Berlusconi is set to address parliament today and call for a confidence vote on his government.

14 October,2011 05:26 pm

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi burst onto Italys political stage in January 1994, promising an economic miracle and a new era of accountability to an electorate tired of decades of corruption and political uncertainly. Within four months he created a new political party from scratch and won national elections that made him Prime Minister.A billionaire soccer, supermarket and media tycoon, Berlusconi controlled 90 percent of Italys mainstream television through his ownership of private broadcaster Mediaset and indirect influence over state broadcaster RAI. His network of family businesses included Italys biggest advertising agency, a massive publishing house, huge real estate interests and the glamorous AC Milan football club.Born in Milan on September 29, 1936, Berlusconi showed entrepreneurial skills at an early age and is reported to have sold essays to less gifted classmates for a small fee.The son of a bank employee, Berlusconi likes to talk about his humble past. He sang on cruise liners for extra cash during college and worked briefly as a vacuum cleaner salesman.He was general manager of a building contracting firm by the age of 23 and rode the Milan property boom of the 1960s, building high-rise housing estates for the citys nouveaux riches.He took advantage of government deregulation of the television industry in the mid-1970s to buy his first station, a small Milan-based shopping channel, and by 1986 had captured around 80 per cent of Italys commercial TV market.Using his money, influence and media savvy, Berlusconi created his right-wing Forza Italia party and joined forces with the federalist Northern League and the neo-fascist National Alliance to contest the March 1994 election. Their centre-right Freedom Alliance romped to a landslide victory in Italys most dramatic general election for nearly 50 years.With Berlusconis astonishing rise to power came hopes that some stability might enter Italys volatile political scene, but feuding amongst his coalition partners soon surfaced. The government collapsed within months of the 1994 elections and Berlusconi lost the premiership less than a year into office.The next six years were spent in the political wilderness as the Freedom Alliance failed to win support in national and local elections and Berlusconis calibre as leader was openly questioned.In January 1996 he went on trial accused of bribing tax inspectors in return for advantageous audits. He was found guilty and handed a two-year, nine-month prison term, but was later acquitted.Some political pundits dismissed Berlusconi as a mercurial tycoon who had mistakenly stumbled into politics. But Berlusconi proved them wrong with a triumphant return to power in May 2001 when his Freedom Alliance was elected with the biggest majority in the history of the Italian Republic.