Italy’s former Prime Minister and billionaire media mogul, Silvio Berlusconi, is dead. His death was announced on Monday, June 12, by his Mediaset television network.
Berlusconi, who had suffered from a range of health conditions in recent years, including prostate cancer, heart ailments, Covid-19, leukaemia and, most recently, a lung infection, died at Milan’s San Raffaele hospital, aged 86.
A state funeral is being planned for Wednesday in Milan.
Berlusconi amassed much of his fame and fortune from his business dealings. He founded Italy’s largest media company, Mediaset, and was the controlling shareholder of the media giant. He also played big in real estate and football, owning AC Milan from 1986 to 2017.
After building a business empire in the 1970s and 1980s, Berlusconi launched himself into politics in 1994. He would go on to dominate Italian politics for the next nearly 20 years, becoming the country’s longest-serving premier. He led the centre-right party, Forza Italia, from 1994 to 2009, before taking control of the successor party, The People of Freedom, until 2013.
A right-wing populist, Berlusconi was a four-time Prime Minister of Italy – 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2005, 2005 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011.
But his last few years as Italian Prime Minister were plagued by allegations of corruption and tales of his “bunga bunga” sex parties with underage women at his lavish villa outside Milan. He denied the sex party allegations and was acquitted on appeal in 2014, after several women testified that his “bunga bunga” parties were merely “elegant dinners”. He was, however, convicted of tax fraud and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment, which was later shortened to one year of community service.
His failing health and endless legal battles notwithstanding, Berlusconi held on to the control of Forza Italia and staged a comeback to frontline politics, winning a seat in the European Parliament in 2019 and in the Italian Senate in 2022.
In death, Berlusconi is being mourned by political allies and rivals both within and outside Italy.
Italian Defence Minister, Guido Crosetto, expressed “great, enormous pain” over the news of Berlusconi’s death.
“He leaves a huge void, because he was a great. It’s the end of an epoch, the closing of an era. I loved him very much. Goodbye Silvio,” Crosetto wrote, per Independent (UK).
A former premier, Mario Draghi, a non-partisan figure and one-time head of the European Central Bank, said Berlusconi “transformed politics and was loved by millions of Italians for his humanity and charisma”.
“Berlusconi made the history of our country. His death marks one of those moments in which everyone, whether or not they backed his choices, feel affected,” a former centre-left premier, Enrico Letta, tweeted on Monday.
Reuters reports that Berlusconi counted Russian President Vladimir Putin as a friend. For instance, he was reported to have refused to blame Putin for Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, saying Moscow only wanted to put “decent people” in charge.
When he marked his 86th birthday, amid the Russia-Ukraine crisis, Berlusconi received best wishes and vodka from Putin, and boasted that he returned the favour by sending back Italian wine.
“For me, Silvio was a dear person, a true friend. I have always sincerely admired his wisdom, his ability to make balanced, far-sighted decisions even in the most difficult situations,” Putin said on Monday.
Some of Berlusconi’s policies were also known to be polarizing, for which many hated him and many loved him as well.
Yet, Matteo Salvini, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the far-right League party, described him, in a lengthy tribute on Twitter, as “one of the greatest ever, in all fields, from all points of view, without equal”.
