The Ups and Downs of a Rightwinger From Left Field

1994, January Italy's post-war political order torn apart by corruption investigations. Only a Communist party that has ditched Marxism survives almost intact and looks a certain winner of that year's election. Then Silvio Berlusconi, in a phrase known to every Italian, "comes down on to the field". In a nine-minute video sent to TV channels, he announces he will run.

1994, March Berlusconi wins the general election, allied to Gianfranco Fini's "post-fascists" and the Northern League, then an anti-establishment regionalist party uneasy about Berlusconi's attitude to the courts, which are already closing in on him. By December, Berlusconi has been abandoned by the Northern League and resigns. It seems to be the end of his political adventure.

1996 Berlusconi defeated in a general election by Romano Prodi. The start of five years in the political wilderness. But, crucially, he distracts the center-left from plans to introduce conflict-of-interest legislation that would force him to choose between politics and his control of commercial television.

2001 Berlusconi is back, winning crushing majorities in both houses of parliament. But his allies, joined by the Union of Christian and Center Democrats (UDC), soon start bickering, and in 2005 his government falls, only to be put back together. Berlusconi's mandate is punctuated by scandals over legislation apparently tailored to his own interests; financial, political, even judicial.

2003 Hits international low point. In the European parliament, he compares a German MEP to a concentration camp guard.

2006, March Hits international high point. Addresses joint session of the US Congress, grateful for his backing for President Bush's Middle East policies.

2006, April Loses general election by a whisker to his nemesis, Romano Prodi, fresh back from the European Commission.