Berlusconi's political card.

The question, in a way, is a twist on the old wheeze about "what to give a man who has everything."

Silvio Berlusconi, operator of one of the world's largest private media empires, has just about as much of everything as you could want.

His Fininvest dominates Italian commercial television. Fininvest publishing interests have about 25 per cent of the mass magazine market and produces every fifth book printed in Italy. His Standa retailing chain is one of the country's largest.

Berlusconi is, on paper at least, immensely wealthy. Both Fortune and Forbes have him only a page or two away from the Sultan of Brunei on their yearly list of people with too much money.

Beautiful women seek him out. everywhere he goes he is admired and pampered. Extravagantly healthy at age 56, he has his own teeth and some of his own hair. He is loved and hated in about equal measure, but no one is indifferent - and that's fine by him.

So what more could he want?

As unlikely as this sounds. Silvio Berlusconi now wants to become Prime Minister of Italy.

He has, in his own words, decided to "drink the bitter cup of public service." Day to day management of his business empire is to be turned over to Fedele Confalonieri, his faithful Number Two, so that be can get on about the business of saving the Italians from themselves.

Berlusconi believes that his countrymen, if he does not offer them a more attractive alternative, risk electing Italy's first Neo-Communist-led government in political elections due this Spring.

The credibility of Italy's traditional governing parties has been completely and utterly destroyed by wave after wave of nasty revelations emerging from the "Bribesville" scandals now shaking Italy.

In the eyes of many voters. there is now hardly anyone left to vote for except perhaps the Democratic Party of the Left - the recently re-named Neo-Communist Party - and its associated hangers-on and fellow travellers.

It's not that the Communists weren't on the take as well. They were. their hands were clearly in the till. But they were stealing less and, in the public perception, stealing "for the party" and not so much for personal gain.

The net result is that the former Communists appear to possess the only working political machine at a national level and, in Berlusconi's view, are about to use that advantage to get themselves elected to power. He is convinced that, once in office, they will use their control of the government to snatch one, two or three of his TV networks from him.

It is now fairly clear that Berlusconi initially decided to go into politics as a defensive measure, to wring some measure of protection for his TV operation.

In early meetings with his campaign team at Villa San Martino - his home and personal answer to Versailles - Berlusconi regularly swore that he had no intention of exposing himself directly to the political heat. "I'd consider it only if an acclaiming crowd came to fetch me from the Villa," was his coy comment.

Sometime last Summer the crowd apparently made it out to the estate even if other observers failed to detect it. A decision was taken to "go for it" and an impressive organizational effort swung into high priority action.

A personal ideologue, Professor Giuliano Urbani, was acquired to think about policy. A national headquarters was established in a Milan office building requisitioned from Silvio Berlusconi's brother Paolo, a real estate operator. Work began to establish 8,000 "Forza Italia" (Go Italy!) political clubs up and down the Italian peninsula and to select 700 candidates to stand for election under the Berlusconi party (Italian flag) colors.

Berlusconi came out of the political closet last November when, while inaugurating a new Fininvest shopping center, he "accidentally" endorsed the neo-Fascist candidate in a Rome Mayoral election who promptly lost.

Though the various 'I meant to say' explanations given after the fact play down its importance, Berlusconi, certainly not personally a Fascist, was placing himself squarely on the political right.

That is unoccupied territory in Italy. With the exception of the smallish neo-Fascist fringe, every significant political grouping in the country has - until now - carefully claimed to be "progressive," whatever that may mean.

Berlusconi is a clever fellow. He knows something the newspapers here - his enemies to a man - don't like to admit. The population at large is sick to death of being "progressive" if that means it must find the hands of corrupt politicians continually in its pockets.

In the end, part of the appeal of Berlusconi seems to be that he hardly has any political ideas of his own. And those he does have, seem little more than a re-edition of the famous dictum expressed in the '50s by auto executive Alfred Sloane that "What's good for General Motors is good for the USA."

Berlusconi feels that, with the "success" of Fininvest, he has created wealth and jobs. He believes that wealth and jobs. He believes that wealth and jobs are exactly what his country wants too: ergo, What's good for Fininvest - and for Silvio Beriusconi - is good for Italy.

Yes, but can he win? The answer is a resounding maybe.

He is a political amateur who is trying to learn the trade while running for his country's highest office. He has a genuine gift for putting his foot in his mouth and the violent opposition of every newspaper, magazine and broadcasting operation in the country that he does not personally control.

On the other hand, his opponents are clearly terrified, his media empire is a splendid tool, he can move huge sums of campaign financing, he enjoys enormous recognition and a great degree of personal popularity.

Still, say his enemies, if personal popularity was all there was to it, why you'd see movie stars in the White House. Oops.

  REALITY CHECK
    Berlusconi's Woes

  *  On the political front: the popular
     leftist coalition

  *  On the financial side: banks,
     recession

  *   On the competition side: RAI, RCS,
      Republica/Espresso Publishing

  *   On the legal side: corruption
      charges for some associates; an
      invalid broadcasting law; anti-trust
      laws and publishing ombudsman.

  *   On the ethical side: reconcile the
      political and business sides