1 August 2013, he was convicted of tax-fraud by the court of final instance, the Court of Cassation, confirming his four-year prison sentence (of which three years are automatically pardoned) along with a public office ban for two years. As his age exceeded 70 years, he was exempted from direct imprisonment, and instead served his sentence by doing unpaid social community work. Because he was sentenced to a gross imprisonment of more than two years, a new Italian anticorruption law resulted in the Senate expelling and barring him from serving in any legislative office for six years. Berlusconi has pledged to stay leader of Forza Italia throughout his custodial sentence and public office ban. However he was not able to campaign for his party and, according to him, this was the main reason for declining opinion poll numbers, which are putting the party steadily in fourth place, behind the Democratic Party, the Five Star Movement and FI's long-time coalition partner Lega Nord.