Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian PM who bounced back from sex scandals and corruption allegations, has died aged 86.
He died at the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, according to Italian media.
In April he was treated for a lung infection linked to a previously undisclosed case of chronic leukaemia.
A flamboyant billionaire media tycoon, Berlusconi first came to office in 1994 and led four governments until 2011.
He led the center-right Forza Italia party which went into coalition under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni after elections in September, when he was elected to Italy’s upper house, the Senate.
He died at the San Raffaele hospital in Milan, where he had spent six weeks this spring undergoing treatment for a lung infection linked to chronic myelomonocytic leukemia before being readmitted.
Born in Milan in 1936 to a middle-class family, Berlusconi began his business career in property development before going on to found Mediaset, Italy’s largest commercial broadcaster. He also owned AC Milan football club between 1986 and 2017.
Forza Italia was founded in 1993.
A year later, Berlusconi was the first prime minister to be elected without previously having held a government office, and his second term in office, between 2001 and 2006 is the longest served by any Italian leader since the Second World War.
He returned to power in 2011 but was forced to resign in 2011 amid an acute debt crisis.
Berlusconi was convicted of tax fraud in 2012 for which he served his year-long sentence doing part-time community service at a residential home in Milan.
His ban on running for office was lifted in time for the general elections in 2018 when Forza Italia ran in coalition with the League and Brothers of Italy but fell short of the 40% required to govern.
In 2019, Berlusconi won a seat in the European parliament, and in general elections in October 2022, his party returned to power in a coalition led by Giorgio Meloni’s Brothers of Italy.
Berlusconi was also elected as a senator.
Nicknamed Il Cavaliere (the knight), Berlusconi was often considered the “kingmaker” in Italian politics.
In 2016, he had surgery to replace a faulty aortic valve and was admitted to hospital with Covid in September 2020.
He had lingering complications related to the virus, an experience he described as “the worst of my life”.
He married twice, and was in a relationship with Francesca Pascale, 37, for seven years before a relationship with 33-year-old Marta Fascina, an MP with Forza Italia with whom he had a “symbolic marriage” in March 2022.
He is survived by five children.
By Agencies
