Biography

Silvio Berlusconi ( born 29 September 1936) is an Italian politician, the current Prime Minister of Italy, as well as an entrepreneur. He is also known under the nickname Il Cavaliere (literally, The Knight), due to the knighthood Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977. He is the second longest-serving Prime Minister of Italy, after Benito Mussolini. He held this position on three separate occasions: from 1994 to 1995, from 2001 to 2006 and currently since 2008. Technically, he has been sworn in four times because after a cabinet reshuffle, as happened with Berlusconi in 2005, the new ministry is sworn in and subjected to a vote of confidence.