Berlusconi shows his new look, with wrinkles and all

Sunday, 26 January 2014. In order to differentiate himself from his young opponent Matteo Renzi, Silvio Berlusconi is switching to a new look. An older one.

Berlusconi as shown by the Sunday Times

For decades Silvio Berlusconi has been labouring on his external appearance, in order to look younger than he actually is (he turned 77 on 29 September 2013), by means of hair transplant, face lifting, changing his headgear into something newer and pictures tweaking.

He thus created a well known persona: the youthful, women lover, brilliant entrepreneur, who adores to enjoy life and organising bunga-bunga parties in his Arcore's villa, who has a girlfriend - Francesca Pascale - 50 years his junior (but many other girls boasted of having a relationship with Berlusconi, like show-girl Nicole Minetti and Miss Montenegro Katarina Knezevic).

Well, now the former Italian prime minister has to face new challenges from a youngster, the new Italian Democratic Party's secretary Matteo Renzi, who is young for real (he tuned 39 on 11 January 2014) and just emerged as a new force in the Italian politics. 

Silvio and Matteo are currently discussing the terms of a new electoral law for Italy, their coming together is hitting the headlines of Italian newspapers (actually Renzi has been criticised for having “resuscitated” the Berlusconi, hit by conviction for tax fraud and sex related offences, and ejected from the Italian Parliament, but that's another story...).

Since Berlusconi can't really beat the adversary/partner the grounds of freshness, he decided to try the opposite. Using an interview with the Sunday Times - “Silvio Berlusconi after the fall” is the title of the article - and a photo shoot by their photographer, he decided to show himself as he really is, full of wrinkles.

Berlusconi with some of his women (who became minister under his patronage): switching from playboy to granddad?

“The Knight is proud of his age” wrote Il Giornale, a paper owned by Berlusconi’s family (you can imagine what kind of news they publish...), using the widely-known nickname for the media billionaire who was decorated with the title “Cavaliere del Lavoro” (“Order of Merit for Labour”) for his services to Italian industry back in 1977.

“Welcome, signore, to my palazzo” (meaning “Welcome, sir, to my palace”) says Berlusconi, showing the images of his new face on the Sunday Times, having no intention to keep a low profile notwithstanding the judicial woes. In fact celebrating the reborn of Forza Italia – the party he founded exactly 20 years ago, in 1994 – he pledged to win again in 2014.