Editing Silvio Berlusconi (section)

=== Comparisons to other leaders ===
[[File:P062510PS-0443 (4753023841).jpg|thumb|Berlusconi standing between German chancellor [[Angela Merkel]] and United States president [[Barack Obama]] at the [[36th G8 summit]] in Muskoka, Canada, 2010]]
[[File:Vladimir Putin and Silvio Berlusconi in Crimea (2015-09-11) 08.jpg|thumb|Berlusconi among the crowd during his trip in [[Crimea]], 2015]]
A number of writers and political commentators considered Berlusconi's political success a precedent for the [[2016 United States presidential election]] of real estate tycoon [[Donald Trump]] as the 45th president of the United States,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/09/21/donald-trump-is-americas-silvio-berlusconi/|title=Donald Trump is America's Silvio Berlusconi|last=Jebreal|first=Rula|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=21 September 2015|access-date=11 November 2016|archive-date=29 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230329222827/https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/09/21/donald-trump-is-americas-silvio-berlusconi/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21709984-americans-could-look-italy-taste-things-come-what-donald-trump-and-silvio|title=What Donald Trump and Silvio Berlusconi have in common|newspaper=The Economist|last=Berlusconi|first=David|date=10 November 2016|access-date=11 November 2016|archive-date=11 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161111014351/http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21709984-americans-could-look-italy-taste-things-come-what-donald-trump-and-silvio|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/20/donald-trump-silvio-berlusconi-italy-prime-minister|title=We've seen Donald Trump before – his name was Silvio Berlusconi|last=Foot|first=John|newspaper=The Guardian|date=20 October 2016|access-date=11 November 2016|archive-date=17 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230517174536/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/20/donald-trump-silvio-berlusconi-italy-prime-minister|url-status=live}}</ref> with most citing Berlusconi's panned prime ministerial tenure and therefore making the comparison in dismay. [[Roger Cohen]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' wrote: "Widely ridiculed, endlessly written about, long unscathed by his evident [[misogyny]] and diverse legal travails, Berlusconi proved a Teflon politician ... Nobody who knows Berlusconi and has watched the rise and rise of Donald Trump can fail to be struck by the parallels."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/15/opinion/the-trump-berlusconi-syndrome.html|title=The Trump-Berlusconi Syndrome|last=Cohen|first=Roger|newspaper=The New York Times|date=14 March 2016|access-date=11 November 2016|archive-date=12 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161212182123/http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/15/opinion/the-trump-berlusconi-syndrome.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In ''[[The Daily Beast]]'', Barbie Latza Nadeau wrote: "If Americans are wondering just what a Trump presidency would look like, they only need to look at the traumatized remains of Italy after Berlusconi had his way."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/28/were-donald-trump-and-silvio-berlusconi-separated-at-birth.html|title=Italy Elected Its Trump—and It Was a Fiasco|last=Nadeau|first=Barbie Latza|newspaper=The Daily Beast|date=28 February 2016|access-date=11 November 2016|archive-date=5 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170505093057/http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/28/were-donald-trump-and-silvio-berlusconi-separated-at-birth.html|url-status=live}}</ref> During the 2016 United States election, ''[[Politico]]'' described Berlusconi as the closest parallel to Trump in a historical world leader.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/04/donald-trump-2016-silvio-berlusconi-italy-213797|title=In Trump, Italians Recognize a Familiar Orange Face|last=Marchetti|first=Silvia|newspaper=Politico|date=7 April 2016|access-date=20 August 2018|archive-date=8 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181008163024/https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/04/donald-trump-2016-silvio-berlusconi-italy-213797|url-status=live}}</ref> In a piece written for ''[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]'' and published in April 2017, Lorenzo Newman noted the similarities in the career trajectories between the two.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2017/04/the_similarities_between_trump_and_berlusconi_are_much_deeper_than_you_think.html|title=Bunga Bunga, American Style|last=Newman|first=Lorenzo|date=3 April 2017|website=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]|access-date=3 April 2017|archive-date=3 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403212200/http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2017/04/the_similarities_between_trump_and_berlusconi_are_much_deeper_than_you_think.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2015, [[Andrej Babiš]], the then [[Finance Minister of the Czech Republic]], was compared to Berlusconi due to his media ownership, business activities, political influence, and legal problems with a prison sentence hanging over him. ''[[Foreign Policy]]'' drew parallels between the two, labelling Babiš with the nickname "Babisconi".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/04/10/now-the-czechs-have-an-oligarch-problem-too-andrej-babis/|title=Now the Czechs Have an Oligarch Problem, Too|website=Foreign Policy|date=10 April 2015|access-date=3 March 2018|archive-date=21 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211221000315/https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/04/10/now-the-czechs-have-an-oligarch-problem-too-andrej-babis/|url-status=live}}</ref> British historian [[Perry Anderson]] wrote that, despite Berlusconi's reputation as an {{wt|en|enfant terrible}} of the European right, his actual policy record places him "to the left of [[Bill Clinton]], who built much of his career in America on policies—delivering [[Capital punishment in Arkansas|executions in Arkansas]], scything welfare in Washington—that would be [[Overton window|unthinkable]] for any Prime Minister in Italy".<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Anderson|first1=Perry|date=September–October 2002|title=Force and Consent|journal=[[The New Left Review]]|issue=17}}</ref>