Tax-fraud convicted, sex-party holding Silvio Berlusconi wants to lead Italy again
Strasbourg — Lawyers for Silvio Berlusconi argued on Wednesday at the European Court of Human Rights against his ban from holding public office, hoping for a green light that will allow him to run for prime minister at Italy’s election early in 2018. In a hearing before the Strasbourg court, the four-times prime minister appealed against his banishment from holding public office that followed a 2013 tax fraud conviction. It is supposed to remain in place until 2019. The billionaire media tycoon was widely written off after he quit as prime minister in 2011 amid a sex scandal involving his "bunga bunga" parties, while Italian bond yields surged to unsustainable levels at the height of the eurozone debt crisis. However, 81-year-old Berlusconi has made a remarkable comeback after recovering from open heart surgery in 2016, and his Forza Italia (Go Italy) party is now the lynchpin of a centre-right coalition that leads in opinion polls ahead of the election. The "Berlusconi versus Italy...
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