ROME: Former premier Silvio Berlusconi, famed for his face lifts and hair implants, has opted for a sharp image change in reaction to the rise of younger rival Matteo Renzi, agreeing to be shown wrinkled and without make-up by a UK newspaper yesterday.
The Sunday Times carried a portrait of 77-year-old centre-right leader entitled “Silvio Berlusconi after the fall” by photographer Paul Stuart on the front page of its colour supplement. Major Italian newspapers reproduced the Sunday Times cover.
“Il Cavaliere proud of his age”, said Il Giornale, a paper owned by Berlusconi’s family. “He has taken off the mask because masks are not needed any more. Because now the enemy is not the same and the same makeup is not needed,” it said.
Other Italian newspapers minutely dissected the portrait and concluded that the rise of Renzi, the 39-year-old mayor of Florence who has shaken up Italian politics since winning the leadership of the centre-left Democratic Party, had persuaded Berlusconi to make a virtue of his own age. Reuters
