Berlusconi's top bid may be a flash in the pan

Four-time prime minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi has become the latest candidate to be linked with running to be the country's next president－at the age of 85.

With incumbent Sergio Mattarella poised but not yet certain to step down at the end of his seven-year reign at the beginning of February, there has been widespread speculation over whether Prime Minister Mario Draghi might go for the highest job－but Berlusconi's name is being touted as well.

The media tycoon's four tenures of office, stretching from the mid-1990s to 2011, were marred by allegations of corruption and lurid scandals.

The Euronews website reported that Berlusconi was convicted by Italy's Supreme Court in 2013 for tax evasion of around 7 million euros ($7.9 million) through his company Finivest, which saw him initially jailed for four years, later switched to one year of community service, and barred from public office for six years.

There is concern that his divisive personality and politics would cause political turbulence, which might threaten the recovery work from economic problems and the pandemic that Draghi has overseen.

Left-leaning Democratic Party politician Peppe Provenzano told the Financial Times that the prospect of Berlusconi as president "would pose a problem of international credibility of Italian institutions, with extremely serious consequences that would lead to a political earthquake".

But Berlusconi's bid may be a little more than a flash in the pan, with one of his own supporters, lower house deputy Vittorio Sgarbi, having already abandoned his attempts to drum up support, calling it a "desperate task".

Sgarbi told Italian state radio RAI that he thought Berlusconi was no fan of Draghi and might try to persuade Mattarella to go for another term of office, providing him with what Sgarbi called "an honorable way out".

Berlusconi's last stint in government was when Italy was at the deepest point of its debt crisis, and he left as the country came under pressure from ratings agencies and the European Central Bank, with Draghi as its president at the time.

Berlusconi is the formal candidate of the Parliamentary center-right bloc made up of two parties－the League and Brothers of Italy. But between them, they would be unlikely to pull together enough support to propel him to success, which was why Sgarbi was recruited to try and pick up other votes. However, Sgarbi admitted that this is unlikely to pay off.

The election process formally begins next week, and it is not yet clear if Berlusconi will still be part of it by then.