Is it finally time to say ‘Bye-Bye Berlusconi?’

HE’S the great Houdini of world politics. Buffeted by scandal, convicted of corruption, abandoned by allies, Silvio Berlusconi has been written off countless times over the two decades in which he has dominated Italian politics — and each time he made a miraculous escape from the political dead.

But this time, it may be different.

An Italian Senate committee last night proposed Berlusconi be expelled from parliament following his criminal conviction, dealing a further humiliating blow to the embattled billionaire tycoon. The senators, most of them leftist opponents of the three-time former premier, voted in favour of the motion which now has to go to the full Senate for final approval expected later this month.