Silvio Berlusconi's big footprint in Europe

The business tycoon and former cruise ship crooner was not an obvious choice to lead Italy

Flamboyant, controversial Silvio Berlusconi - a four-time prime minister and a key coalition partner in Italy's current government - was envied and admired, loathed and derided in equal measure for many, many years.

Nicknamed Il Cavaliere - the Knight - he will not easily be forgotten at home. And he leaves an indelible Berlusconi-shaped stamp on European politics too.

I followed his political career from the start - later as a journalist but firstly as a student - writing a university dissertation entitled "Il cammino inarrestabile di Silvio Berlusconi - The unstoppable rise of Silvio Berlusconi" after he won his first election back in 1994.

Berlusconi quite simply set off a political earthquake in Europe that year - the aftershocks of which will still reverberate long after his state funeral on Wednesday.

It seemed revolutionary back in the 1990s to have a business tycoon, former cruise ship crooner and generally screamingly obvious non-career politician at the helm of important EU and Nato military alliance member Italy.

That was a time of political deepening of the European project focused in Brussels, but Silvio Berlusconi pushed a more nationalist, "Italy First" type of narrative.

I was informed by someone in the room that he once told EU leaders at a summit they should speak more about women and football instead.

At home, Berlusconi jumped into coalition government with the post-fascist far-right - until then a taboo in post-war Italy - rendering them more socially acceptable as a result.

He was intentionally politically incorrect, claiming to speak the language of "ordinary people". He was also unapologetic about using his media empire as an advantage over political opponents. He displayed a blatant disregard for the judiciary too, later attempting to change Italian law to avoid prosecution himself.

Is Berlusconi's political playbook sounding familiar at all?

In many ways, he is the father of modern day populist nationalism in Europe. Ingredients of his political cocktail are evident in numerous ambitious right-leaning politicians and political movements across the continent.

Think: Hungary's Victor Orban - who publicly mourned Mr Berlusconi's death on Monday, as well as more than one Austrian government, Marine Le Pen of France, and more.

You could also draw parallels further afield - with former US President Donald Trump, for example, whom Mr Berlusconi admired.

He had a penchant for strongmen politicians, such as Vladimir Putin, who he was great friends with. He is even said to have gifted the Russian leader with a duvet cover festooned with both men's faces. On hearing of Mr Berlusconi's death on Monday, President Putin described him as a "dear person, a true friend".

A stark contrast to his often spiky relationship with Italy's traditional friends, Germany and France.

That closeness to Moscow worried Italy's allies, especially after the invasion of Ukraine, when Mr Berlusconi was back in coalition government.

In Brussels, at the European Union headquarters, he was widely viewed with derision and disdain.

Despite the rhetoric, hyperbole and almost relentless optimist political shtick - even when Italy was hit by the 2008 economic crisis - Berlusconi failed to improve his country's fortunes or even radically change Italy.

Instead, the real change he brought about was influencing and emboldening a new generation of ambitious politicians in the wider European political arena.