Silvio Berlusconi in Japan

Silvio Berlusconi (born 29 September 1936) is an Italian politician (Politics of Italy), entrepreneur, real estate and insurance tycoon, bank and media proprietor, and sports team owner. He is the longest-serving Prime Minister (Prime Minister of Italy) of Italy, a position he has held on three separate occasions: from 1994 to 1995, from 2001 to 2006 and currently since 2008. He is the leader of the People of Freedom (The People of Freedom) political movement, a centre-right party he founded in 2009, merging Forza Italia, his own party, with Alleanza Nazionale of Gianfranco Fini and other parties. His victory in the 2008 general elections (Italian general election, 2008) paved the way for a third term in office. As of November 2009, he is the longest-serving current leader (List of longest serving G8 leaders) of a G8 country.

Berlusconi is the proprietor of three analogue television channels, various digital television channels, as well as some of the larger-circulation national news magazines. Together these account for nearly half the Italian market. He is the founder and major shareholder of Fininvest, which is among the ten largest privately owned companies in Italy and currently operates in media and finance. With Ennio Doris he founded Mediolanum (Mediolanum (company)), one of the countrys biggest banking and insurance groups. Berlusconi, together with the Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, is the main shareholder of Mediaset, a publicly traded company. He is the owner of the Italian football club (Union of European Football Associations) A.C. Milan, which has won a number of national and international trophies under his ownership.

According to Forbes magazine, Berlusconi is Italys third richest person, with personal assets worth $9.4 billion (USD (United States dollar)) in 2008, preceded only by Michele Ferrero and Leonardo del Vecchio.

Berlusconis political rise was rapid and surrounded by controversy. He was elected as a Member of Parliament for the first time and appointed as Prime Minister following the March 1994 snap parliamentary elections (Italian general election, 1994), when Forza Italia gained a relative majority a mere three months after having been officially launched. However, his cabinet collapsed after seven months, due to internal disagreements in his coalition. In the April 1996 snap parliamentary elections (Italian general election, 1996), Berlusconi ran for Prime Minister again but was defeated by centre-left candidate Romano Prodi. In the May 2001 parliamentary elections (Italian general election, 2001), he was again the centre-right candidate for Prime Minister and won against the centre-left candidate Francesco Rutelli. Berlusconi then formed his second and third cabinets, until 2006.

Berlusconi was leader of the centre-right coalition in the April 2006 parliamentary elections (Italian general election, 2006), which he lost by a very narrow margin, his opponent again being Romano Prodi. He was re-elected in the parliamentary elections of April 2008 (Italian general election, 2008) following the collapse, on 24 January 2008, of Romano Prodis government (Prodi II Cabinet) and sworn in as prime minister on 8 May 2008 (see also 2008 Italian political crisis).