Silvio Berlusconi

Who he is: Silvio Berlusconi was the 50th prime minister of Italy and an entrepreneur. He also goes by the nickname II Cavaliere, meaning "The Knight," due to the Order of Merit for Labour knighthood he received in 1977. Berlusconi is the third longest serving prime minister in Italian history. He has held this position three separate times: 1994-95, 2001-06 and 2008-11. He is also the longest serving current leader of a G8 country.

Berlusconi is the leader and founder, in 2009, of a center-right party called the People of Freedom. Previously, he affiliated with the liberal-conservative/Christian democratic Forza Italia party, which had been founded in 1993. It was dissolved into the People of Freedom party in 2008.

Berlusconi has been accused of many crimes in his life, including connections to the mafia, false accounting, tax fraud, collusion, embezzlement and corruption and bribery of police and judicial officials. Berlusconi resigned as prime minister in November 2011, and in February 2012 had corruption charges against him thrown out of Italian court due to a statue of limitations. In all other previous cases he has been acquitted. He faces charges for sex with a minor, accused of having paid for sex with a nightclub dancer under the age of 18 and then abusing his political power by trying to convince police to release the girls, arrested on theft charges, by claiming, falsely, she was the granddaughter of Hosni Mubarek. Berlusconi was sentenced to four years in prison for tax evasion on 26 October 2012, though the sentence was shortened to one year due to a 2006 amnesty law. He was also ordered, with co-defendants, to pay 10 million euros and has been banned from holding public office for three years. He is not imprisoned and an appeal is expected.

The government policies of Berlusconi consisted of a planned reform of the Italian constitution that Berlusconi said was "inspired by the Soviets." The reform was passed in April 2004 by the Senate. Berlusconi is a strong supporter of American foreign policy and switched from being a mostly pro-Arab supporter to being friendlier with Turkey and Israel. However, by December 2006 he withdrew all Italian troops from Iraq during the US-led Iraq War.

Silvio Berlusconi obviously has powerful backers. Berlusconi was first listed on the Forbes list of billionaires in 1998 and was ranked by Forbes in March 2012 as the 169th richest man in the world, with a net worth of $5.9 billion, down from number 74 in 2010. In the modern age this sort of fortune is not amassed without the aid of Anglosphere elites and others supporting ever-closer global governance. In fact, a close look at Berlusconi's career indicates that he has been supported by the increased authoritarianism and ever more powerful central government that is necessary to put a new world order in place.

In 1981, for instance, he was linked to Licio Gelli's secret freemasonry lodge Propaganda 2 (P2), which had as its goals a strong, authoritarian, central government. The P2 list of members included individuals in the secret services, individuals from the political arena, business, military and media and Silvio Berlusconi as well. After its discovery, P2 was dissolved and Berlusconi denied involvement. Under Berlusconi, Italy is surely involved in the "new world order."

Background: Silvio Berlusconi was born on September 29, 1936 in Milan. He completed his secondary education at Salesian College and then studied law at the Università Statale in Milan, where he graduated in 1961, having written a thesis about the legal aspects of advertising. Berlusconi is divorced and has five children. His career began as a singer on cruise ships before he entered the construction industry in the early 1960s. After a few successful projects, he constructed the Milano Due (Milan 2), a residential project consisting of 10,500 apartments, in the later half of the decade.

In 1973, Berlusconi ventured into the media world. He set up a small cable television company called Telimilano to service his Milan 2 apartments. It started transmitting a year later. He bought two more channels after that and then relocated the station to central Milan in 1977. Berlusconi then began broadcasting over the airwaves.

Fininvest, founded in 1978, was Berlusconi's first media group. In 1980, he founded Italy's first private network, Canale 5, which was shortly followed by Italia 1. bought from the Rusconi family in 1982. and Rete 4, bought from Mondadori in 1984. Berlusconi sold a portion of his media holdings – first to German media group Kirch and then he put it up for public offer. The Epsilon MediaGroup was formed in 1999 as a partnership with Kirch. More recently, Berlusconi also co-founded one of Italy's biggest life insurance banking company, Mediolanum.

In January 1994 Silvio Berlusconi entered politics and in March of the same year became prime minister. He was forced out of office when an opponent resigned, saying that Berlusconi had not respected the electoral pact. In 2001, Berlusconi ran for and became prime minister again. In November of 2008 the Forza Italia party was dissolved and the People of Freedom party was established. In 2009 Berlusconi was voted chairman of the People of Freedom.

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