Might Silvio Berlusconi become the next president of Italy?

OPENING THEIREU parliamentary mailboxes last month, Italian lawmakers were surprised to find an anthology of speeches by Silvio Berlusconi. On the cover was a photograph of the former prime minister, his arms raised high to acknowledge the adulation of an unseen crowd. The booklet, modestly entitled “I am Forza Italia” (“Come on, Italy”, the party that Mr Berlusconi founded and leads), was the opening gambit in the 85-year-old media mogul’s undeclared campaign to crown his turbulent career with election, by a college of parliamentarians, to Italy’s highest office. The term of the incumbent president, Sergio Mattarella, expires on February 3rd, and he has repeatedly ruled out an extension. The race to succeed him is now dominating Italian public life.Why? A president spends much of his time making speeches, conferring honours and receiving dignitaries. He (there has never been a female president) has some weighty powers, including responsibility for dissolving parliament and appointing the prime minister. But those powers are few. What makes the choice of a president so important just now is that those who are thought to covet the job include the current prime minister, Mario Draghi, the guarantor to Brussels and the markets that Italy will spend productively the €200bn ($225bn) it stands to get from the ’s pandemic recovery fund.