ROME (Reuters) - At a recent business conference, Silvio Berlusconi puzzled his audience by boasting that, as prime minister, he had made sure Italians got monthly pensions of 1,000 lire - about the cost of an espresso.
Leading a centre-right coalition that tops polls ahead of a national election on March 4, the 81-year-old leader is showing signs of fragility as he fights back from a ban from holding public office, sex scandals and legal entanglements.
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