Two months after putting aside his business empire, Silvio Berlusconi was the front-runner Tuesday to be Italy's next prime minister, following a landslide election victory by a rightist coalition.
One of Italy's richest men, Berlusconi gave up leadership - but not ownership - of his supermarkets, television networks and movie theaters to enter politicswith the goal of keeping the former Communists from power.
Final results Tuesday in parliamentary elections showed that the coalition of his Forza Italia (Let's Go, Italy) party, the autonomy-minded Northern League and the neo-fascist National Alliance soundly defeated a leftist bloc.
Berlusconi's forces won a majority of 366 seats in the 630-seat Chamber of Deputies. The left won 213 seats, a center coalition 46 and the rest were divided among small parties.
In the 315-seat Senate, the right fell three seats short of an absolute majority. Berlusconi's alliance won 155 seats to 122 for the leftists. Centrists took 31 and smaller movements took the rest.
Prices on the Milan stock exchange fell some Tuesday, following strong gains recently tied to expectations that the right would win in the elections Sunday and Monday. The market seemed to be reacting Tuesday with uncertainty over whether Berlusconi's coalition could stick together and form a goverment.
Berlusconi said he was confident an agreement among the right could be reached to form a government.
"I don't believe the electorate will be betrayed," he said in a radio interview.
He held himself out as a candidate for prime minister who must form a Cabinet that will be approved by both houses of Parliament. It will be Italy's 53rd government since the end of World War II.