Silvio Berlusconi, sleazy slick-haired chum of Tony Blair and upholder of Italy's proud tradition of quasi-corrupt, all-powerful political leaders is one of the most intriguing characters in world politics. So what do we know about him? Everyone is aware of his Mussolini-like hold on Italian society—controlling (or effectively controlling) as he does, 90 per cent of all national television broadcasting, Italy's biggest publishing house, various financial and real estate interests, and one of the biggest football teams, AC Milan. He is thus also backing former Milan superstar George Weah for the Liberian presidency. Silvio is also a proponent of proportional representation. Commentators have wondered for years how this fits in with the sexier parts of his lifestyle. They remain, to some extent, puzzled. That is because they were looking in the wrong place. Silvio's love of PR comes not from his sexy Milan-owning side but his corrupt authoritarian side.

Italy's reaction to World War II, and the overarching ways of a fat bald man who thought he was God, was to establish the most crippling form of electoral system western Europe had ever seen. Ostensibly it worked marvellously, in that Italy has not since tried to invade Ethiopia. However, its successes stop there.

Italy's extreme form of proportional representation has produced on average a government a year for half a century, none of which have been any good. At all. In 1993, 83% of Italians decided that they had had enough, and abandoned their freaky system for a not-quite-so-freaky system, made up of 75% FPTP and 25% PR. The PR bit is subject to a 4% threshold to keep out the small circus parties, but they tend to get in anyway, slipping past the electoral bouncers amid a maelstrom of horse-trading and talk of alliances.

The competition for who gets to sit behind the revolving door of government is fought between two broad coalitions—a right-wing one headed by Berlusconi and part of his 'Forza Italia' movement (a slogan chanted at Italian international football matches), and the left-wing 'Union' coalition headed by former European Commission President Romano Prodi, a remarkable man who has managed to succeed in politics despite having a penchant for speaking the truth.

The new system proposal by Signor Silvio would see a return to full indirect proportional representation. The scheme maintains the 4% threshold, but parties falling shy of it would be left out of the calculation to decide the winner, instead, the winning side's tally of seats would be upped to ensure it had an outright majority. This thus discriminates against a coalition made up of a couple of big parties and a bunch of little ones, such as 'Union', for example. Bad luck for poor Mr Prodi, whose side are opening up a significant lead in the polls ahead of the next election, which must be held by May next year. In a further stroke of fortune for the Prime Minister, his coalition always tends to do better in the proportional vote, worth about two-points, according to Italian psephologists. Mr Prodi, continuing to speak the truth, described the amendment as "tantamount to theft" and threatened to paralyse the legislature unless Silvio backtracked. He also pointed out that while the last shake-up to the system in 1993 had been via a referendum, this move was completely against the wishes of the Italian people.

Mr Berlusconi's latest move to cripple his country is the latest in a very long line of measures of which Benito would have been proud.

In no particular order, and with little or no relevance to electoral reform, here are some of the fun things Silvio has been up to in his role as Italy's Prime Minister, richest man and general monopolistic sleaze-merchant. (Most facts taken from Wikipedia)

On April 20, 2005, Berlusconi tendered the resignation of his government after recent losses in regional elections and internal problems in his coalition, but on April 23, 2005, he formed a new government without many changes.

In 1994, talking about his direct rival in his electoral college, economist Luciano Spaventa, Berlusconi said "He should return when he's won a Champions League".

In one widely reported incident, upon being asked how he would have dealt with his conflict of interests by the German member of the European parliament Martin Schulz (SPD) during Italy's presidency, Berlusconi reacted with the words "Mr. Schulz, I know there is a producer in Italy who is making a film on the Nazi concentration camps. I will suggest you for the role of Kapo. You'd be perfect." It should be noted that this event was not broadcast on any of the nation's main TV channels, being, as they are, part of the Berlusconi media empire.

Berlusconi once claimed that "Benito Mussolini's regime hadn't killed a single person" and that Mussolini "just used to send opposers on holiday".

During one famous chat show appearance, Berlusconi turned to the host and asked him to smell his cologne: "What do you think that scent is?" he asked before giving his own answer: "It's the smell of sanctity."

The Freedom of the Press 2004 Global Survey, an annual study issued by the American organization Freedom House, downgraded Italy's ranking from 'Free' to 'Partly Free' on the basis of Berlusconi's influence over RAI, a ranking which, in "Western Europe" was shared only with Turkey (2005).

His media and advertising connections have raised the issue of possible conflicts of interest, and indeed Silvio promised to do something about it before one of his spells in charge. So far, that has included denying any conflict actually exists and passing control of bits of his empire to his children.

Silvio is no stranger to these pesky legal battles, and often even gets as far as the courtroom. He has had to defend himself against allegations of money-laundering, association with the Mafia, tax evasion, complicity in murder and bribery of politicians, judges and the finance ministry’s police, the Guardia di Finanza. He has, however, never been charged with anything worthwhile. When it looked like he might be, back in the eighties on a charge of bribing some judges, he persuaded his coalition partners to pass a law giving him legal immunity, which abruptly ended his case. On another occasion, he escaped because a certain amount of time had elapsed since the event.

From The Economist:

One charge against Mr Berlusconi, which he denies, is that he induced judges to find in his favour by promising them money. Whether this is true or not, there is a clear trail of money from Mr Berlusconi to Renato Squillante, a judge, via Mr Previti. The Economist has documents that show a transfer, on March 6th 1991, of $434,404 from one of Mr Berlusconi’s Swiss bank accounts to one of Mr Previti’s, and on March 7th, a transfer of the same amount from Mr Previti’s account to the Swiss bank account of Rowena Finance, a Panamanian company. Court evidence shows that Rowena Finance’s account is Mr Squillante’s.

The vain git has also had a facelift.