Italy's powerful rising star, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, appears to be on the way down as polls for next week's election have his party trailing.
If voters Sunday and Monday decide as expected, it would mark the end of an era for Italian politics.
But Berlusconi hasn't been a lifelong politician.
The London Times reports the cruise ship singer and vacuum salesman turned into a media mogul.
A private suburb of Milan, called "Milano 2," is mostly his creation, where 10,000 people live in posh houses with TV stations, a bank and supermarkets all owned by Berlusconi.
Now worth at least $12 billion, Berlusconi's publishing company is the biggest in Italy and his media network takes in 63 percent of the country's advertising.
He also owns the famed AC Milan soccer club.
But since his first, short-lived stint as prime minister in 1994, Berlusconi has been dogged by scandal allegations.
Reelected in 2001, his tenure has been marked by more than 90 conduct investigations and lawsuits.
On charges in which he wasn't acquitted, the findings were successfully appealed or the law repealed by his government.
But now his Forza Italia Party may lose, his coalition partners are turning away and the mighty Berlusconi may be out of office.
© Copyright 2006 by United Press International
