Silvio Berlusconi: 'I Will Not Run For Office At Next Elections'

Silvio Berlusconi: 'I Will Not Run For Office At Next Elections'

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he will not run for office in the country's next elections after agreeing to stand down pending financial reforms.

In a revealing interview with La Stampa newspaper, Berlusconi repeated his decision to stand down after a key package of financial reform measures are implemented.

He also said that he will not stand in the next elections, which he said will probably take place in February.

It had been speculated that Berlusconi could seek to regain his office at a later date after standing down, but the interview indicates that he is now resigned to a life outside of high office.

"First we must give immediate answers to the markets," he said in the interview, according to a translation. "We can not wait any longer to approve the measures agreed. I am committed to Europe to do so, and before I go I want to keep the promise."

When asked if he felt that he had been forced out of office by the markets, Berlusconi said that he regarded the pressure the country is under as a chance for reform.

"To tell the truth, this pressure is a great opportunity," he said. "Markets encourage us to make the reforms that we are never able to do."

The outgoing PM said that he now regarded his role as a "founding father" of his party. He added that maybe he can help out in the election campaign, as ""that's one thing I always managed well".

"My children are very happy if I go out of politics," Berlusconi went on. "I am hoping to wake up in the morning and not have to read newspapers from around the world full of attacks against me, and then know that I am tired. "

He then seemed to compare himself to another fallen Italian leader - Benito Mussolini.

"I was reading a book on Mussolini's letters to Claretta at some point," Berlusconi said. "And he tells her: 'Do not you see that I do not I matter, I can only make recommendations.' Here I felt the same situation."

"I'm not a dictator," he explains. "Even if you have been writing so for years, but what I meant is that the founding fathers, because of the fear that history will repeated, the government has been weakened excessively."

"It remains, however, a consolation, that of being the longest-serving prime minister in history," he said.

At this point interviewer corrected him - Berlusconi would have only been the longest-serving PM if he had completed his term.

"This I did not know," he told the interviewer. "Shame, shame, really. Okay, good night."

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