Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has left his long-term girlfriend and is now reportedly dating a woman 53 years his junior.

The 83-year-old recently split with Francesca Pascale, 34, after 12 years together, although a statement from the political party Forza Italia said the pair will ‘remain friends’.

Repubblica reports that Pascale said she was ‘astonished’ by the announcement, but that she wishes Berlusconi ‘all the happiness in the world’.

She said: “I hope he will find a person who takes care of him as I did.”

New images appear to suggest Berlusconi has already moved on and is now dating an MP from his party: 30-year-old Marta Fascina.

Rumours around their relationship, which have been circulating in Italian gossip media for some time, took a turn with recent paparazzi pictures of the pair leaving a hotel in Switzerland and walking Pascale’s dog.

Pascale, a former shop assistant and co-founding member of a Berlusconi fan club, didn’t seem too happy about Berlusconi’s rumoured new flame walking her dog, adding: “It amuses me to see a member of parliament take my dog for a walk. But that’s fine by me.”

Back in 2013, Pascale and Berlusconi appeared in an Italian edition of Vanity Fair, where the former appeared eager to seal the deal and get married.

She said: “I was a minor when I set my sights on him. I sought him out, I courted him, I made him fall in love and then I became his girlfriend.

“I practically did and do everything: All he has to do is say ‘yes’.”

Meanwhile, Berlusconi expressed gratitude towards his now-ex for standing by his side during difficult times, including a tax fraud eviction that led to a six-year ban from parliament, which was overturned in 2018.

Separate reports claim Pascale even bought a wedding dress to celebrate her former flame’s divorce from his second wife Veronica Lario, who he has three children with.

Lario, 63, filed for divorce in 2009 as she reportedly could not be with a man who ‘consorted with minors’ after he attended a female friend’s 18th birthday party.

The billionaire mogul was Italy’s longest-serving post-war PM, during which time he was caught up in a number of scandals.

One of the most controversial cases arrived in 2011 when he was sentenced to seven years in prison for paying for sex with a 17-year-old and using his political powers to cover it up, a conviction that was later overturned.

With a trail of political scandals, ‘bunga bunga’ sex parties and legal gaffes, if 30-year-old Fascina really is dating Berlusconi, it sounds like she has her work cut out for her.