Two decades before Donald Trump leapfrogged his way into the White House, another political outsider, using a similar formula of glamour, money and showmanship, became the Prime Minister of Italy. When he first won office in 1994, Silvio Berlusconi was a media magnate with no political experience. He had formed his party, Forza Italia, only the previous year. The advertising campaign he ran on his TV channels played its part in persuading Italian voters to give this maverick a chance to lead the country. They would do so three more times, until the 2011 Italian financial crisis finally eroded confidence in his leadership.
But years of playing fast-and-loose with not just convention but also the law, caught up with Berlusconi. His handling of Italy’s debt crisis may have forced him out of office, but years of allegations of misconduct — bribing judges, tax fraud, paying underage girls for sex — played a part in taking the shine off. Towards the end of his life, he was no longer the dominating figure in a country whose politics had outpaced even the nimble Il Cavaliere.
