MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Panamanian president elect compared to Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi

Elected Pte. Ricardo Martinelli

Panama president-elect and supermarket tycoon Ricardo Martinelli, 57, of Italian origin has been compared to the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi by Panamanian media and political analysts.

As the Italian leader, conservative Martinelli has an extrovert and dominant personality.

Martinelli also has investments in the media and owns one of the country’s main television stations, Televisora Nacional.

The president-elect family is originally from Lucca, Toscana in central Italy.

Martinelli’s fortune has not been quantified but according to some press reports could be in the range of 400 million US dollars. He is alleged to have invested 40 million US dollars in his presidential campaign.

Besides building the supermarket chain virtually from scratch following the 1989 invasion of Panama by the George Bush Sr. administration, he has also held important posts in his country: he was minister of the Panama Canal and director of Social Security.

Five years ago when Omar Torrijos was elected president his bid only managed to collect 5% of the vote.

However following failure, he immediately begun with his political campaign which finally proved victorious on Sunday.