ROME: Former Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi looks increasingly likely to run for president in elections that start later this month, after Italy's centre-right parties agreed on his candidacy.
Manfred Weber, the conservative German politician who heads the European People's Party (EPP) group, also endorsed Berlusconi on Saturday.
The pan-European EPP is composed of conservative and centre-right parties from across the continent.
"As leader of the European People's Party, I support Berlusconi for the presidency of the republic because he has shown that he has the awareness to hold the office," Weber told Corriere della Sera newspaper.
In Italy, the deputies, senators and representatives of the 20regions elect the president of the republic.
To win, a two-thirds majority is needed in the first three rounds ofvoting. In the fourth, an absolute majority is sufficient. The first ballot is scheduled for January 24.
The leading members of several right-wing parties met on Friday evening at Berlusconi's Rome villa. The lawmakers from the conservative Forza Italia party, the far-right Lega, the hard-right Brothers of Italy and others agreed that 85-year-old Berlusconi was the right person to become president. A later statement said he had the "authority and experience that the country deserves and Italians expect" in the current difficult situation.
Meanwhile leading leftist lawmakers have criticized his plans to stand. Giuseppe Conte, who leads the populist Five Star Movement,described his candidacy as an "unthinkable option."
"The figure of the president of the republic must reflect a high and undisputed moral profile. I don't think Berlusconi can boast these requirements," leftist politician Loredana de Petris tweeted on Saturday.
Germany's Social Democrats also criticized Weber for supporting Berlusconi on Saturday, calling the decision to back him strange,given the fact that far-right lawmakers are also behind him.
Democrats should be unanimous in not making common cause "with the radical right-wing enemies of democracy, parliamentary group vice-chairman Achim Post said, in comments directed to Berlusconi.
"I expect Friedrich Merz in particular, as the new CDU leader, to clearly distance himself from Berlusconi," Post said, referring to the head of Germany's Christian Democrats.
Berlusconi, who was prime minister three times, has been tried for corruption after what was dubbed "Rubygate" affair. - dpa
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