(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 14 - The centre right on Friday urged three-time former premier and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi to formally declare that he is bidding for the Italian presidency after Sergio Mattarella's term ends on February 3.
    A summit between rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) leader Giorgia Meloni, rightwing League leader Matteo Salvini, and centre-right Forza Italia (FI) leader Berlusconi, said the 85-year-old billionaire businessman-turned-politician offered the "authoritativeness and experience the country deserves".
    Despite not officially throwing his hat into the ring for the election that starts on January 24, Berlusconi has been campaigning hard for the post.
    The centre left say that with his legal woes and long hostility to the left he is too divisive to represent national unity.
    Centre-left Democratic Party (PD) leader and ex premier Enrico Letta reiterated the PD's opposition to Berlusconi and said the next president should not be a leader of a political party.
    5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Giusppe Conte, another former premier, said Berlusconi was a "preposterous" candidate.
    Italian Left (SI) leader Nicola Fratoianni on Friday urged MPs who have allegedly received cash gifts from the former premier recently to give them back.
    Premier Mario Draghi is the bookies' favourite to succeed Mattarella but many hope he will stay on as premier until the natural end of the parliamentary term in 2023 to oversee reforms needed to secure almost 200 billion euros in post COVID EU recovery funds. (ANSA).