Third time lucky, Berlusconi triumphs again

By Robin Pomeroy

ROME (Reuters) - Two years ago Silvio Berlusconi lost an election he had hoped would make him Italy's prime minister for another five years. He never admitted defeat.

His comeback on Monday, winning a third term with an unexpectedly strong mandate, did not show Italy had swung back from the left but rather proved he was robbed last time and that most Italians had wanted him in power all along, he said.

"I can't deny that I think the 2006 elections were irregular. The result we achieved today is proof of that," Berlusconi said by telephone to a TV talk show shortly after his challenger, Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni, conceded defeat.

The 71-year-old is not a good loser because his whole persona is based on winning.

Only after making a fortune in property and media did he enter politics, creating his own party in the 1990s to fill the void left by the implosion of the Christian Democrats and "save" Italy from the left.

He has refused to give in to encroaching old age, with facelifts and hair implants making the perma-tanned grandfather look younger than he did a decade ago.

As owner of top-flight soccer team AC Milan, Berlusconi has lived the Italian dream -- and his message of success continues to strike a chord. "They welcome me like a rock star," he said in a newspaper interview after addressing adoring fans.

Dogged by legal cases that have cast a shadow on his business dealings, he has managed to fend most of them off. While he blames a vindictive, politically motivated judiciary for the cases, his critics say he used his political power to help avoid prosecution.

But Il Cavaliere, "The Knight" as he is known, has not always won. He lost two general elections to outgoing Prime Minister Romano Prodi, a softly spoken bureaucrat whose personality could not be more different from Berlusconi's.

POLITICAL INCORRECTNESS

AC Milan, fourth in soccer's Serie A has no chance of winning the league this season, and Berlusconi recently fell from the top of Italy's rich list to third place.

The Italy he has won the right to govern for the next five years is hardly in winning shape either.

Berlusconi will need all his business and political acumen to spur an economy that has slowed close to stagnation, something he failed to do during his last term in 2001-06.

What he has shown, for a third time, is that many Italians warm to his common touch and political incorrectness.

Saluting "the menopause section" of an election rally -- seats mostly occupied by older female supporters -- and urging women to cook for his party's candidates to keep their strength up, he won applause, not boos.