Former populist prime minister and media magnate Silvio Berlusconi passed away. Despite a slew of scandals, he managed to dominate Italian public life for decades.
He was 86. His passing was reported on Monday by the Mediaset television network, which also featured a happy image of the guy on its homepage. It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the death.
The longest-serving prime minister in Italian history, Berlusconi founded the largest media empire in the nation before exploiting his notoriety and money to establish a three-term political career.
He persevered through sex scandals and legal proceedings to play a significant role in Italian politics up to his passing. In July of last year, Mario Draghi’s government was overthrown with the aid of his Forza Italia party. He announced his candidacy for the Italian presidency months prior.
This occurred in spite of years of poor health, a leukaemia diagnosis in April, a history of heart surgery, prostate cancer, and a stay in the ICU due to Covid-19. He was brought into the hospital on Friday for what the medical staff characterized as a routine examination for a lung infection.
Political allies paid tribute to a man on Monday who, despite sharp disagreements, had been a pillar of Italian society for more than 40 years.
Giorgia Meloni, the far-right prime minister of Italy, referred to Berlusconi as “a fighter” and “a man who was never afraid to defend his conviction.” Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy party also contributed to the removal of Draghi last year, referred to him as “one of the most influential men in the history of Italy.”
Matteo Salvini, the deputy prime minister, described him as a “great Italian” and lamented the loss of a “great friend.” And Guido Crosetto, the defence minister, declared that his passing signalled the “end of an era.”
Even Berlusconi’s rivals conceded his outsized legacy. “Many loved him, many hated him: everyone today must recognize that his impact on political but also economic, sporting and television life was unprecedented,” Matteo Renzi, the country’s former centre-left prime minister, said on Twitter.
Berlusconi died on the morning of 12 June 2023 at San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, at the age of 86. He had had breathing problems, heart issues and Covid-19 in the immediate past which saw him in and out of the hospital multiple times.
