Italy`s Senate expels scandal-ridden ex-prime minister

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has survived all kinds of corruption and sex scandals, including underage sex, tax evasion, embezzlement, bribery and illegal political funds.

Berlusconi, 77, who served three times as prime minister for 20 years and had the Italian politics under his thumb, has lost his seat in the Parliament on Wednesday that had long protected him with impunity, suffering a fatal blow in his political career.

Pietro Grasso, the speaker of the Italian Senate, announced that the upper house voted Wednesday to expel Berlusconi, abolishing his election as a parliamentary member. Berlusconi is banned from running for public office for the next six years and lost his privilege of immunity. It is possible that he could be arrested on criminal charges against sex with an underage prostitute. The expulsion virtually kicks him out of politics.

The disgraced politician, who made a fortune from his construction business in the late 1960s before plunging into the broadcasting business, is the controlling shareholder of Mediaset, the country`s largest media group, and owner of the Italian football club AC Milan. In 2013, he is the world`s 194th richest man in the world with assets of 6.2 billion U.S. dollars, according to Forbes magazine.

In 1994, he became the prime minister by forming a center-right alliance and winning the general elections held just three months after he founded the Forza Italia. He failed in his second bid for prime minister in 1996. Two years later, he became the first ex-prime minister in his country to be indicted for his alleged links with the Mafia.

In May 2001, he became the prime minister for the second time after winning general elections. This time, however, he faced a match rigging scandal involving AC Milan. In the wake of the scandal, he lost in the 2006 general elections and lost his premiership. In 2011, he stepped down his position of prime minister for the third time over the country`s fiscal crisis, his underage sex scandal and tax fraud. Nevertheless, he returned to politics just one year later. In the February general elections this year, his party won 91 parliamentary seats and joined a left-right coalition led by Prime Minister Enrico Letta.

Probably, that was it for him. In August, the top Italian court sentenced him to four years in prison for tax fraud. It was the first conviction for the "king of scandals." Under a 2012 law that bans anyone sentenced to more than two years in prison from holding or running for public office for six years, he had to stop down from his seat in the Senate on Wednesday. His party could not help him because of internal feuds. Senator Pier Ferdinando Casini said, "However it goes, a 20-year period is concluded."

Still, Berlusconi will likely exercise his political influence outside the Parliament. Some survey results suggest that the center-right coalition will win the upcoming general elections if it puts him at the forefront.

At a rally in downtown Rome on Wednesday, Berlusconi strongly protested his expulsion, saying, "The leftists have been waiting for today for 20 years. We are here on a bitter day, a day of mourning for democracy." He vowed to continue to lead his party and stay in politics, referring to political leaders outside the Parliament such as Beppe Grillo, the leader of the opposition Five Star Movement.