Word: berlusconi
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...turns 70 in September and has already served two separate terms as prime minister, Berlusconi is well-suited to returning to the role of billionaire opposition leader, with his boundless energy and appetites. During two exclusive interviews with TIME, in July 2003 and June 2004, those singular qualities of "Berlusconismo" were on full display...
...first encounter at his office at the Prime Minister's headquarters of Palazzo Chigi, Berlusconi gestured to an elegant armchair for the reporter, but realized right away that the long, antique sofa where he and his aide would be sitting needed to be moved first. Rather than wait for one of the many stewards to do the heavy lifting, Berlusconi, with a technique that would impress Governor Schwarzenegger, bent down himself to move one, and then the other, side of the bulky sofa himself...
...year later, in an interview over lunch at Palazzo Grazioli, Berlusconi's private Rome residence, a waiter brought a large porcelain bowl filled with fresh cherries after the meal. Berlusconi offered the fruit to the reporter and each of his own aides, all of whom offered a polite "no grazie." With that, he slowly started to peek in the bowl to pluck out the best cherries for himself. As the conversation continued, so did the search for each new cherry, and all the while Berlusconi pulled the bowl closer and closer until his left arm was practically wrapped around...
...Berlusconi will doubtless try to put a similar grip on Prodi's new government. After all, the center-left's slim margin of victory adds to already existing doubts about Prodi's prospects of keeping his disparate allies from imploding. On foreign policy, for example, he must manage a core of coalition partners who are die-hard Communists and want Italy to break openly with U.S. policy. Prodi, who served as Italian Prime Minister in the late 1990s and later became President of the European Commission, has said he wants a more Europe-focused approach than was laid out under...
...Still, Prodi's call for a steady pullout of Italian troops in Iraq is in line with an already announced Berlusconi plan for a withdrawal...