MILAN — Carmen Barbagallo has a rule about voting: “Always Berlusconi!”

The 80-year-old waitress has been impressed by, amused by and voting for Silvio Berlusconi, 82, the flamboyant billionaire and scandal-splattered former prime minister, for as long as she can remember because, “He is so smart and always helps people.”

In May her vote helped Berlusconi win a seat in the European Parliament, an improbable act of political resurrection and resilience for a grandfather just out of the hospital for bowel surgery. And she said she will continue to vote for him until either he or she is no longer around.

“So will my whole family,” she said.

Berlusconi, a three-time prime minister, has been a force in Italy a tornado of power, wealth, charm, wit, ego, dirty jokes and swirling scandals of sex and money — since he was first elected in 1994.

His new job in the European Parliament — the first elected office he’s held since he was forced out of Italian Senate over a tax-fraud conviction in 2013 — means that, while diminished, “He’s still important,” said Giovanni Orsina, director of the School of Government at Luiss-Guido Carli University in Rome.

“It’s remarkable, because anyone else would be dead and buried politically by now,” Orsina said. “This man really has an uncommon vitality. ... He doesn’t want to die. He has strength and stamina and desire to lead.”

Berlusconi took his seat Tuesday in Strasbourg, France, as one of the 751 members of the European legislative body. He has long been skeptical of the European Union, but he has said he will use his new post to promote a more united Europe at a time when Italy is dominated by a fervently populist and anti-European government.

He declined to be interviewed for this story.

But announcing his candidacy in January, he said he felt a “sense of responsibility to head for Europe, where there is a lack of deep thinking about the world.” He also blasted the current Italian government, which, he said, “is led by people who have no experience and no competence.”

Berlusconi was premier for more than nine years between 1994 and 2011. While that tenure wouldn’t break records in many countries, it’s longer than any other Italian leader since World War II; 22 of Italy’s 29 postwar prime ministers served less than three years.

Italians are expecting Berlusconi to spice up the dull hum of EU politics. Like President Donald Trump, to whom he is often compared, Berlusconi over the years has infuriated his critics, dazzled his fans and created a unique style of showboat, personality-driven politics.

Joking about his most infamous scandal, over “bunga bunga” parties at his villa involving lots of very young women and allegations of paid sex, Berlusconi told a crowd in 2011: “When asked if they would like to have sex with me, 30% of women said, ‘Yes,’ while the other 70% replied, ‘What, again?’?”

When Berlusconi was convicted in the 2013 tax fraud case, he railed that he had been subjected to “judicial harassment that is unmatched in the civilized world.” He was sentenced to public service, which he performed at a nursing home, playing a piano he donated and singing for Alzheimer’s patients.

Berlusconi has always been a Trumpian figure — albeit one who quotes poetry and speaks at least three languages. He is known for his joyous mirror-worship, once calling himself, “The best political leader in Europe and in the world.”

On the campaign trail in 2006, he rated himself even higher: “I am the Jesus Christ of politics. I am a patient victim, I put up with everyone, I sacrifice myself for everyone.”

He is also close — critics say uncomfortably close — to Russian President Vladimir Putin. As prime minister, he brokered a remarkable 2002 meeting between Putin and President George W. Bush to sign a new cooperation deal between Russia and NATO.

In 2008, a prostitute alleged that she had sex with the famously libidinous Italian leader on a bed given to him by Putin. Berlusconi’s indignant response was that he had “never paid for a woman.” In return, Berlusconi marked Putin’s 65th birthday by giving the Russian leader a duvet cover featuring a huge image of the two men shaking hands.

Berlusconi has a personal approval rating of just 21% nationally, according to Ipsos Public Affairs. His party, Forza Italia, which he created and still dominates like a private social club, won 14% of the vote in last year’s general election but just 8.8% in May. And his voters are getting older and older: Ipsos research shows that 35% of voters for Berlusconi and his party in the recent election were over 65.

Yet Berlusconi marches on. The media-and-real-estate mogul — who is worth more than $6 billion, according to Forbes — has evolved into an elder statesman, flawed but familiar. Even for many Italians who can’t stand him, he looks almost centrist compared to the country’s nationalist government.

“Berlusconi is a dinosaur, and we cannot take him too seriously,” said Piero Colaprico, a journalist from La Repubblica newspaper, which has long battled Berlusconi. “But this vote means that in Italy, dinosaurs are not yet extinct.”

Adding to his lore, Berlusconi won his seat in the European Parliament despite his ongoing trial on charges of witness tampering.

Berlusconi was convicted in 2013 of paying for sex with a 17-year-old girl at a party at his villa near Milan. He received a seven-year suspended prison sentence and a lifetime ban on holding public office. The conviction and ban were later overturned by an appeals court that said there was no proof Berlusconi knew the girl was underage.

Giorgio Mulé, a member of the Italian parliament from Forza Italia and a close Berlusconi ally, said Italy’s judiciary, which has long been dogged by allegations of partisanship, was stacked against Berlusconi.

“He is the symbol of the Italian Dream — everything he touches transforms into gold,” said Mulé, who argued that most Italians don’t care who has sex with the twice-divorced Berlusconi.

“For the Italian people, ‘bunga bunga’ is not a problem; it’s like a medal,” he said. “The Italians are pragmatic. He can do anything he wants to do. He was a successful man. He had money. They look at him like a symbol of Italy.”