Italy's next moral compass? Berlusconi, 85, eyes presidency

ROME (AP) — Italy is poised to elect a new president, meant to serve as the nation’s moral compass and foster unity by rising above the political fray.

Silvio Berlusconi thinks he fits the bill.

The billionaire media mogul and three times premier, who entered politics nearly 30 years ago with his Forza Italia party, is maneuvering to add Italy’s highest office to his resume.

No matter that he had a tax fraud conviction which got him expelled from the Senate. As for his moral example, the 85-year-old has long shrugged off outrage over his dalliances with young women at his “bunga bunga” soirees, once declaring “I’m no saint." In the most notorious case, he was ultimately acquitted of charges that he allegedly paid for sex with an underage girl.

From his latest villa on the Appia Antica, the ancient Roman consular road, Berlusconi, has for weeks been lobbying lawmakers outside his center-right fold for their votes when they elect the nation’s next head of state for a seven-year term on Jan. 24.

By Tuesday, lawmaker and prominent art critic Vittorio Sgarbi, whom Berlusconi had tasked with scouting for support, indicated that prospects for nailing down sufficient votes were looking shaky

But whether Berlusconi might decide to bow out was unclear.

The new president will be selected by a total of 1,009 Grand Electors — lawmakers of both the lower Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, plus five senators-for life and special regional representatives. The first three rounds of voting require a two-thirds majority. After that, the threshold drops to a simple majority, 505 votes, and that's Berlusconi's target.

“There is a kind of megalomania about this man from the start" of his business career, and he would love to "top off his career with the highest office in the country,''...