Berlusconi, from tycoon to elder statesman

By Robin Pomeroy

ROME (Reuters) - Silvio Berlusconi was a brash entrepreneur when he entered Italian politics in the early 1990s. As he takes power for the third time, the media tycoon aims to show the world he has grown to be an elder statesman.

Often derided abroad as the caricature slick Italian, Berlusconi outmaneuvered his rivals on the left and corralled allies on the right into a tight coalition which won a landslide at April's election, giving him his strongest ever mandate.

At a news conference after the April 13-14 election, Berlusconi compared himself to grandees of European politics, such as former French and British leaders Francois Mitterrand and Margaret Thatcher, saying that at 71 he would be "the oldest -- sorry, I mean the wisest" leader at future EU summits.

Two major world players have welcomed Berlusconi back.

Russia's Vladimir Putin visited Berlusconi at his Sardinian villa shortly after the election and President George W. Bush has said he looks forward to working again with the man who was mainland Europe's biggest backer of the U.S. "war on terrorism".

In his two earlier stints in the job -- briefly in 1994, then again between 2001 and 2006 -- Berlusconi earned a reputation for being less than diplomatic.

Addressing the European Parliament when Italy took the rotating European Union presidency in 2003, he insulted a hostile German Socialist member by saying he would make a good Nazi concentration camp guard in a movie.

He held two fingers behind a Spanish minister's head in an EU summit photograph and caused a minor diplomatic incident by suggesting he had seduced Finnish President Tarja Halonen to persuade her to let Italy host a new EU food safety agency.

"I had to use all my playboy tactics, even if they have not been used for some time," the twice married Berlusconi said.

His politically incorrect sense of humor has often won out against the earnest left. In the election campaign he saluted older women at a rally as "the menopause section" and said women of the centre right were more attractive than those on the left.

ROCK STAR

Only after making a fortune in property and media did Berlusconi 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.

As owner of top-flight soccer team AC Milan, Berlusconi has lived the Italian dream. His message of success, emphasized by his permanent tan and cosmetic surgery, still strikes a chord.

"They welcome me like a rock star," Berlusconi has said of the reaction he gets in the streets.

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