Berlusconi is Italiës langst zittende premier (en)

Silvio Berlusconi today (5 May) leads the longest-serving Italian government since World War II.

By keeping the same administration and coalition in power for 1060 days he has beaten the record set 18 years ago by Socialist Bettino Craxi.

He has succeeded in holding onto power at the domestic level, in spite of allegations of corruption and of manipulation of the media - which yesterday resulted in the resignation of Lucia Annunziata, the head of the state broadcaster RAI, in protest.

Nevertheless he remains a popular, if somewhat controversial, figure in Italy.

And Mr Berlusconi is celebrating at the same time as his personal team, AC Milan is winning the Italian league this week.

His popularity abroad is less obvious.

Bad scores abroad

The Italian presidency of the European Union - in the second half of last year - saw Mr Berlusconi compare a German MEP to a Nazi concentration camp guard and other notable foibles.

Some link the breakdown of the Union's Constitutional talks in December 2003 to the way Mr Berlusconi handled the sensitive negotiations, which also killed his dream of having the new European Constitution adopted in Rome to replace the old Treaty of Rome.

He also upset other EU leaders when unilaterally assuring Russia that it would become a member of the European Union - something that even the most ardent Russophiles in the European Union are scarcely considering.

And he further upset his EU colleagues when praising the Russian President's actions in the breakaway republic of Chechnya - although they have been widely condemned.

Mr Berlusconi furthermore won few admirers when he took an important new savings regime hostage to save Italian farmers from fines after breaching EU milk production quotas.

The rival

The only rival, who is expected to stand a chance of knocking Silvio Berlusconi off his post is Commission president Romano Prodi.

He is tipped to return to Italian politics in November after finishing his job in Brussels.

Mr Berlusconi was elected in May 2001. Since the foundation of the Italian republic after World War II, there have been 59 changes of government.

On average close to one per year.