Et was probably Silvio Berlusconi’s very last invitation to the Italian people for a political coffee trip. At the age of 85 he had once again dreamed of being captain on this voyage. Like when he was prime minister. For a total of nine years, first from 1994 to 1995 and then, with a two-year break, again from 2001 to 2011. Since the “ventennio”, Benito Mussolini’s twenty-year rule, nobody has been in power in Italy for as long as Berlusconi .
Climbing the Quirinal, topographically and politically the highest of Rome’s seven hills and home to the Presidential Palace, should have crowned his unprecedented career. But nothing will come of it. On Saturday, two days before the start of the election of a new president by both houses of parliament, Berlusconi withdrew his candidacy for the highest office of state. “I have decided to take a different path towards national responsibility and I ask that you refrain from proposing my name as President of the Republic,” he said. And further: “Italy needs unity today. I will serve my country in a different way.”