Silvio Survived Gaffes And Girls - But Not Euro

When he came to power in 1994, Silvio Berlusconi billed himself as a breath of fresh air after his political opponents had been annihilated by corruption investigations.

He was seen as an unpretentious, people's man - a self-made multi-millionaire who owned AC Milan and most of the media.

For decades, it did not seem like bad taste to flaunt his wealth.

The dominant figure in Italian politics for nearly two decades, he stood by Bush and Blair in their wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The 75-year-old bandana-wearing former prime minister never tried to be the sombre statesman.

He ordered taller foreign dignitaries not to stand next to him on family photos, kept the German Chancellor Angela Merkel waiting at a Nato summit while on the phone and prompted the Queen to express her irritation over his boisterousness.

Not even the leader of the free world was exempt from his inappropriate behaviour.

In 2009, he joked: "I have to bring you some greetings, greetings from a man, what is his name, what is his name - just a minute, it was someone with a tan - Barack Obama".

Somehow he survived. The gaffes, the scandals and the girls never brought him down.

A few months ago, presenting an award to two young businesswomen, he said: "You are so good I am almost forced to invite you for some bunga, bunga. Yes you are pretty enough you could come."

His career was mired in scandal about his private life but he didn't seem to care what he said.

His second wife accused him of an inappropriate relationship with a 17-year-old aspiring model.

Then there were revelations of prostitutes at his parties, although Berlusconi insisted he had never paid for sex.

At a rally for his supporters in October last year he joked: "And they keep saying 'Berlusconi go home', which puts me in some embarrassment because I wouldn't know which one I should go to, since I own 20."

Accused of embezzlement, tax fraud, false accounting and attempting to bribe a judge, he always claimed it was Italy's institutions holding the country back, not him.

In the end, money did for Berlusconi but not in the way the flamboyant businessman who made 2,500 court appearances might have imagined.

This latest crisis was different - going beyond Italian politics and linked instead to the international money markets which lost faith in Mr Berlusconi's ability to fix Italy's economy.

The sun has set on another political leader in Europe's winter of financial discontent.