- New Zealand edge Australia 31-28 in Bledisloe Cup thriller
- Japan orders evacuations as heavy rains trigger floods in quake-hit area
- New Zealand pilot freed in Indonesia after 19 months in rebel captivity
- Hezbollah in disarray after Israeli air strike kills top commanders
- Leading climate activist released from Vietnam jail
- Ethiopians struggle with bitter pill of currency reform
- Sri Lanka votes in first poll since economic collapse
- Feminist author warns of abortion disaster if Trump wins US election
- US city of Flint still reeling from water crisis, 10 years on
- Arsenal's mean defence faces acid test to shut out Man City again
- Late surge lifts Thailand's Jeeno to LPGA Queen City lead
- DeChambeau says PGA's Ryder Cup decision 'just the start'
- Alcaraz defeated on Laver Cup debut
- Postecoglou embraces 'struggle' to make Spurs a success
- Nice hand 'ashamed' Saint-Etienne 8-0 Ligue 1 mauling
- Boeing CEO says ending strike 'a top priority'
- Harris slams Trump for hypocrisy on abortion as US starts voting
- Academy to host first overseas ceremony to honor young filmmakers
- No doctor necessary: US okays nasal spray flu vaccine for self-use
- Former delivery man Baldwin leads star names at PGA Championship
- Trump shooting: Secret Service admits complacency
- Can an ambitious Milei make Argentina an AI giant?
- Haiti, its suffering growing, in 'race against time': UN expert
- Ibrahim Aqil, the Hezbollah elite unit commander wanted by the US
- Chinese forward Cui signs NBA contract with Brooklyn Nets
- US Fed dissenter calls for 'measured' pace of rate cuts
- Guardiola tells players to lead change over workload as Kompany demands cap on games
- Norway limits wild salmon fishing as stocks hit new lows
- Top Hezbollah commander killed in Israeli strike on Beirut
- Rotterdam fatal knife attacker suspected of 'terrorist motive'
- First early votes cast in knife-edge US presidential election
- Top-ranked Swiatek out of Beijing due to 'personal matters'
- Hard-right Reform UK looks to the future after vote success
- Embiid agrees to NBA contract extension with 76ers
- Joshua aims to complete road to redemption in Dubois bout
- World champion Bagnaia sets pace with lap record at Misano
- Biden says 'working' to get people back to homes on Israel-Lebanon border
- Pope criticises Argentina's crackdown on protesters
- Court limits screenings of videos in France mass rape case
- Gurbaz century takes Afghanistan to 311-4 in 2nd ODI
- Central banks face 'difficult balancing act': IMF chief
- Guardiola tells players to lead change over workload fears
- Paris Olympics sports equipment moves to new homes
- 'Happy' Kinghorn relishing life at Toulouse
- Norris sets Singapore pace as Verstappen only 15th
- Germany to bid to host women's Euro 2029
- Portugal brings deadly forest fires under control
- Postecoglou defends Solanke after slow start to Spurs career
- US nuclear plant Three Mile Island to reopen to power Microsoft
- Arteta urges Arsenal to take next step in Man City showdown
Italy's Berlusconi, the first populist
A showman billionaire who entered politics late and took the fight to the "establishment" with his straight-talking charm, Italy's former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi paved the way for right-wing populists.
"He's the first. He invented everything," John Foot, modern Italian history professor at Bristol University, told AFP following Berlusconi's death on Monday aged 86.
"Everything revolved around him, his life, his success as a businessman, the simple slogans, the use of television," he said.
These were "all the tricks that other populists would copy", from the United States' Donald Trump to Britain's Nigel Farage, Hungary's Viktor Orban and Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro, he added.
After making his fortune in the construction industry and then the media, Berlusconi ran for election for the first time in 1994, with a video message in which he painted himself as a fresh start -- an essential step for today's budding populists.
"The country... needs people with their heads on their shoulders... new men" to replace the corrupt "orphans of communism", he said.
He would be a "worker-Prime Minister" and end the "policy of incomprehensible chatter, stupid bickering, and politicians without real jobs".
His timing was impeccable, making his entrance in the middle of a vast anti-corruption operation which decapitated the political class.
Once in power, he protected himself from a series of legal woes by changing the laws on fraud, corruption and financial crimes.
- 'One of you' -
Many Italians saw themselves in Berlusconi: they too were not fans of the taxman, they liked scantily dressed women, they adored football.
They thought they paid too much tax while toiling for modest pay packets.
It was to them that Berlusconi justified slashing public funds for research, asking "why should we pay a scientist when we manufacture the best shoes in the world?".
"Berlusconi tells the story of a self-made man capable of doing without the state thanks to a 'liberal revolution' which will allow all Italians who want to, to become entrepreneurs", philosopher Anna Bonalume told AFP.
"This promise -- I'm one of you, you can become what I am -- is the very essence of populism," said Bonalume, who wrote an essay on another of Italy's strongmen, Matteo Salvini, called "A month with a populist".
Berlusconi painted himself as the defender of the people, a man who made a fortune despite the shackles of the state.
He used accessible rather than high-flying language, controlled much of the media, and shrugged off sexist and misogynistic behaviour as harmless fun.
"Trumpism bears the imprint" of Berlusconism, the left-wing Repubblica daily said Tuesday, calling Berlusconi "The first populist".
- 'Trump, 30 years earlier' -
Berlusconi is "Trump, 30 years earlier", said Surrey University politics professor Daniele Albertazzi.
The message is the same: "The political elite have tricked you, but here I am, I've made billions through my cleverness, my hard work, and I want to do for the country what I did for myself."
And like the former US president, Berlusconi constantly portrayed himself as a victim to justify his political or legal setbacks: "A victim of the judges, of the political system, of the 'establishment', of the referees," said Foot.
There was one notable difference between the two men though, he said.
Berlusconi "doesn't want to change politics for ideological reasons, it's just about himself and his business interests".
That never stopped him from playing the religious card -- a strong marker of identity for right-wing populists on both sides of the Atlantic.
It was an astonishingly brazen move, Albertazzi said, "when you think of Berlusconi's extra-marital relations, including with very young people when he was in his 80s".
But such contradictions did little to slow a man who -- like Trump after him -- used gratuitously offensive language borrowed from the "people".
At a Christmas party last year, he promised players at his Monza football club "a bus of whores" if they beat the top teams.
A.S.Diogo--PC