THE Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, wants to give the largely ceremonial office of president some real teeth – and then campaign for the job himself. If successful, he would be entrenched as the most powerful Italian politician since Benito Mussolini, the fascist leader who ruled from 1922 to 1943.

Aides said Berlusconi would use his closing speech at a party conference in Rome today to call for a directly elected president, modelled on the French system.

Georgio Napolitano, who is president until 2013 when Berlusconi’s term as prime minister ends, is a former communist who was elected by MPs and regional representatives. His role is mainly confined to dissolving parliament and calling elections.

Berlusconi, 72, is expected to argue that Italy, whose postwar prime ministers have rarely spent more than a year or two in office, needs more decisive government. He is said to favour a president directly elected by the people and with a beefed-up role to match the powers enjoyed by President Nicolas Sarkozy.

“Berlusconi is very envious of Sarkozy and he feels he has a special rapport with the people,” said professor Roberto D’Alimonte, a political scientist at Florence University.

Berlusconi has yet to spell out how powerful the new presidency would be, but it is believed his reforms would allow the head of state in effect to dominate the government by proposing laws, forging foreign policy, appointing the prime minister and naming ministers. His camp has dropped heavy hints that he wants the job.

James Walston, professor of international relations at the American University in Rome, said Berlusconi was already more powerful than Mussolini in some ways because of his media and other business interests.

Fate has smiled on the flamboyant billionaire. Almost a year into his third term as premier, he boasts approval ratings of about 58%, a rare feat among European leaders buffeted by the credit crunch.

Frequent gaffes have not hurt Berlusconi, who has undergone a facelift and a hair transplant. Last week he said he was paler than President Barack Obama “because it’s been so long since I’ve been in the sun”, an echo of last year’s slip when he called Obama “sun-tanned”.

Boosted by his success last weekend in persuading the “postfascist” National Alliance, led by Gianfranco Fini, 57, to merge with his centre-right People of Freedom party, he is determined to reform Italy’s political system.

He can already count on the support of Fini, who is speaker of the lower house and is widely tipped as Berlusconi’s heir.

The idea of a President Berlusconi is “everything but a remote hypothesis”, Fini said last week. D’Alimonte added: “Berlusconi is full of surprises and he could pull it off.”

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