1994: Berlusconi Rising

It’s March 23rd and a history-making face-off plays out on Italian television between Silvio Berlusconi and Achille Occhetto. Behind the scenes, Leonardo does everything he can to help the “Cavaliere” win the joust.

Veronica is now officially a Member of Parliament for Forza Italia but she discovers that many are prejudiced against her. So, to combat that, she pulls up her sleeves and gets to work on an important bill that addresses violence against women.

Under his friend Maroni, Pietro becomes the Home Office Minister Under Secretary, but the government immediately falls prey to difficulties: will Maroni surrender to the lures of Berlusconi or will he follow the dictates of his party leader Bossi?

Scaglia searches for a thread that links a kickback, paid to a finance police officer, to Mondadori, the major media company owned by the Prime Minister. However, he accidentally discovers that someone close to him has skeletons in their closet.

In his villa, Berlusconi tries to heal the rift with his government ally Bossi. But, the summer holiday is marked by the death of a member of the Forza Italia Party staff: a terrible foreboding of what is about to happen to the government.

While Berlusconi is engaged in Naples for the UN summit on organized crime, Leo has to find a pair of earrings snatched from the wife of the Finnish Justice Minister, before the media gets wind of it.

On the day of Leo and Veronica’s wedding one person is glaringly absent: Silvio Berlusconi, whose government is about to fall. The dream of changing Italy seems to have collapsed forever after only six months.

We flash forward to the year 2011 when it seems, finally, that the Berlusconi government is about to fall. Leo, who has become a successful entrepreneur, senses the rising star of Italian politics is a man named Gianroberto Casaleggio.