Never a man to let defeat – or scandal – keep him down, the disgraced former prime minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi has announced he will run once again for the country's top job.
With three colourful terms behind him, Berlusconi confirmed he would try for a fourth time to become premier, saying he was doing it out of "a sense of responsibility" days after his party withdrew its support for the technocrat government of the current prime minister, Mario Monti.
The media mogul told reporters he was running to win and that "the campaign is already on".
Monti, following a two-hour meeting with the Italian president, Giorgio Napolitano, said that he intends to resign after checking to see if parliament can pass next year's budget law.
In a statement released by Napolitano's office, Monti said he does not now feel that he has the support of parliament after Berlusconi's centre-right People of Freedom party withdrew its support from his government this week.
If the budget law can be passed "quickly", Monti said he would immediately confirm his resignation.
The British betting firm Ladbrokes gave 3/1 odds on Berlusconi becoming the prime minister in 2013.
Berlusconi stepped down last year amid a severe debt crisis. Allegations of his involvement with an underage prostitute and reports that he hosted sex-filled "bunga-bunga" parties also clouded his premiership. He has since been convicted of tax fraud and faces low favourability ratings in the polls.
The three-time prime minister got his start selling vacuum cleaners and singing on cruise ships. In 1971, Berlusconi founded a local cable firm, Telemilano, which grew into the country's largest media company, Mediaset. He has since expanded his media empire to include Italy's largest publishing house, Mondadori, and the newspaper Il Giornale. Other business interests include owning the globally popular football club, AC Milan.
Berlusconi entered politics in 1993, forming his own party and naming it after an AC Milan chant used by fans, Forza Italia, which means "go Italy". He rose to power the next year, winning the elections, and went on over the next 14 years to win twice more and lose twice, both times to Romano Prodi.