Italy’s former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will be unable to stand for election for the European Parliament in May.  Italy’s highest court of appeals in Rome has upheld a lower court’s ruling banning him from office for two years because of his tax fraud conviction.

It’s the latest in a series of stunning defeats for the billionaire media magnate who at one time was the most powerful person in Italy.  Berlusconi continues to lead his Forza Italia party from outside parliament, because he was kicked out of the senate last year with his convictions.  Still, his supporters rallied.

“The Court of Cassation's ruling is abnormal and unjust,” said Mariastella Gelmini, a Forza Italia deputy and former education minister, of the high court ruling.  “There is an ideological prejudice against Berlusconi that annuls the rights of the defense.”

Berlusconi’s four-year jail sentence is likely to be reduced to one year of community service.  But he’s also facing a seven-year jail term for his conviction last year for paying for sex with an underage prostitute.