Berlusconi is getting richer and richer

Wednesday, 7 August 2013. As Silvio Berlusconi's judiciary woes grow and political clout wanes, his wealth seems to rise steadily, according to Bloomberg.

Now, look at me! (Photo: REUTERS)

Apart from a few criminal convictions, Silvio Berlusconi's 2013 hasn't been that bad so far, for his wealth increased by the amount of 1.5 billion US dollars (which is almost 1 billion Pound Sterling or about 1.12bn in European Euros), rising by 26 percent and reaching the mind blowing sum of $7.6bn (i.e. £4.9bn or €5.7bn), according to Bloomberg Billionaires index (#1 on the leaderboard still being Mr Bill Gates, with a fortune of $72.6bn/£46.6bn/€54.4, but Silvio has quite a nice heap of money too).
However Mr Berlusconi was just the fourth richest person in Italy, trailing Nutella magnate Michele Ferrero, eyewear maker Leonardo del Vecchio and head of metals conglomerate Paolo Rocca, his wealth's grow was outpaced only by del Vecchio (who is also the owner of historical sunglasses maker Ray-Ban since 1999).

Berlusconi's (final) conviction for tax fraud and – previously – the sentence that condemns him for having sex with an under-age prostitute (to say nothing about the abuse of power) might have given a few headaches to the former prime minister (and possibly might have given way to his political departure), but these are just hiccups, he is not out of play yet. Not at all.

Whatever he might do, they'll keep applauding:
Berlusconi's girlfriend Francesca Pascale (right), factotum Mariarosa Rossi (left)

He is still fighting to keep his clutch on Italian politics (and so far he has been successful), by counterattacking on the field the decisions of the judges and trying to prove that unlawfully (as he put it) getting rid of him would be equal to deprive millions of Italian of their leader.

His family, his allies, his army and his women - 28-year-old girlfriend Francesca Pascale in first row - are still beside him, to fight against his enemies.

His pledge about sitting in jail if convicted turned out to be only a part of the script of the show he is staging, now he seems he would stop at nothing in order to avoid punishment (which would also mean ban from public office, ejection from the Senate, ans so forth).

He attacked from the skies and stated his case in the streets, but the offensive has just begun, and - as the Italians will be back from holidays, his TVs will be begin the usual bombardment. A pretty hot autumn is in the offings for Italy.