PC and Nearly Gaffe-free: the New Berlusconi

Outwardly he is much the same, just disconcertingly younger. His facelift has settled down, so he no longer has the stretched look of four years ago. His hair transplant a few months later has endowed him with a thick, slightly unnatural pelt, the human equivalent of Astroturf.

But what Silvio Berlusconi is saying in the campaign leading to Italy's general election on April 13-14 is unrecognizable from even a few months back.

After bursting into politics in 1994, Italy's richest citizen became the embodiment of political incorrectness. It was Berlusconi who told a German politician he reminded him of a concentration camp guard; it was he who reacted to 9/11 by urging westerners to be "aware of the superiority of our civilization".

But the new 2008 model Berlusconi seeks to give a very different impression - that of a sober, elder statesman who can cure the ills of his troubled homeland far better than his young rival.

"Rubbish sorting," he gravely told a group of journalists on Thursday night, "has to be imported into all the regions of Italy. Of all the systems in use, the one that has most recommended itself to me is the Swiss one."

This from the man who made an obscene gesture behind the head of the Spanish foreign minister at a European summit.

The news agency Adnkronos had invited the Guardian to sit in on a question-and-answer session with the man all polls suggest will be Italy's next leader. For an hour, Berlusconi discussed everything from taxes to Tibet, with scarcely a gaffe.

Well, almost. His Achilles heel is his age. He will be asking voters to return him to power until he is 76. His centre-left opponent, Walter Veltroni, is 52. Yet, asked about the impact of the internet, Berlusconi declined on the grounds of ignorance. With a broad smile, he said: "I always tell my staff: 'They're right when they say I'm too old to govern a modern country.'"

As if realising his mistake, he hastily added: "However, I know how to take advantage of the knowledge of others, those who understand what I don't."

There are two varieties of Berlusconi gaffe: the genuine, foot-in-mouth kind and the outrageous quips which, in his own words this week, he uses "to concentrate the attention of the people who are listening to me on what I am saying".

He allowed himself just one. When the terms of Air France's bid for Italy's debt-laden flag-carrier, Alitalia, were released "out came the French attitude of imposing themselves on others", he said. The terms were "not just unacceptable, but offensive".

That pointed to the other distinguishing characteristic of the new Berlusconi - an even greater emphasis on economic nationalism.

It plays superbly with the voters at a time of deep national insecurity. In December, Italians learned to their horror that their economy had fallen behind that of Spain. They have since learned that they earn less than Greeks. Images of mounds of stinking waste in Naples have this week been superseded by a crisis over dioxin in that most emblematic of Italian exports, mozzarella.

"These days," Berlusconi sighed, "it's pretty difficult to give an international role to an Italy that has suffered - is suffering - a terrible deterioration in its image and credibility." The obvious subtext is that the outgoing center-left government is to blame.

The Naples refuse crisis had portrayed Italy as "fourth world". "No [international] meeting starts nowadays without the Italian representative being made fun of, and having to explain it's not true that the whole of Italy is awash with garbage, but just one area," he said.