Silvio Berlusconi’s oldest daughter Marina, head of his $6.6 billion business empire, yesterday flatly dismissed growing speculation that she would replace her father as leader of Italy’s centre-right after his conviction for tax fraud.
Talk that she would take over the leadership intensified after the supreme court upheld his conviction on August 1, confirming he faces a year’s house arrest or community service.
The four-times prime minister, who has dominated Italian politics for the past 20 years, is also likely to be ejected from the Senate in the autumn and be unable to stand as an electoral candidate.
“I must reiterate once again, and categorically, that I never considered entering politics,” the 47-year-old Marina said in a statement.
She said she hoped the denial would put paid to any speculation about “an intention I never entertained and do not entertain”.
Berlusconi’s daughter had denied any political ambition several times before and Berlusconi loyalists insist he will remain firmly in charge of his People of Freedom (PDL) party.
But that has done little to curb speculation that she could become at least a figurehead for the PDL during Berlusconi’s enforced absence, with even family newspaper Il Giornale running front-page articles about her possible role.
I must reiterate, categorically, that I never considered entering politics
Some Italian media have noted that Berlusconi himself denied any interest in joining the political fray months before storming to his first election victory in 1994.
Listed among the world’s most powerful women by US business magazine Forbes, Marina Berlusconi sits at the helm of Fininvest, a holding company that controls broadcaster Mediaset, publishing house Mondadori and soccer club AC Milan. It also has a big stake in asset manager Mediolanum.
In another development, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano yesterday said a jail sentence for Silvio Berlusconi must be applied, indicating that he will not pardon the former prime minister.
Members of Berlusconi’s centre-right party had pressured the 88-year-old President to exercise his powers of presidential pardon to annul a tax fraud conviction that threatens Berlusconi’s future in politics.
“Any definitive sentence, and the consequent obligation of applying it, cannot but be taken into account,” Napolitano said in a statement in which he urged the importance of avoiding a government crisis overthe issue.
Napolitano said he had never received a request for a pardon from Berlusconi.