Silvio Berlusconi dies

Silvio Berlusconiformer Prime Minister of Italy, He passed away today at the age of 86. at San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, according to Italian media reports.

The politician and businessman had been ill for a while, and it was bothering him chronic myelomonocytic leukemia. Berlusconi was admitted to hospital last Friday, three weeks after being discharged for 44 days in hospital with pneumonia. The health of the Forza Italia founder had deteriorated in recent months, with hospital admissions continuing, and concern had increased significantly in recent hours.

Several members of his family had traveled to the clinic Monday morning, including his five children and his brother Paolo, according to the AdnKronos agency. These visits have set off all alarms – there is still no official confirmation. In recent days, too, he had received the support of representatives of Italian politics, especially his partners in government, including Giorgia Meloni herself.

Last Friday, his doctors assured that Berlusconi had been admitted to San Raffaele Hospital to undergo “scheduled checks of his known hematologic pathology” and that the admission was not responding “to any critical aspect or alarm”.

Active, until the last moment

Although ill, Berlusconi remained in politics until his death. He has been a senator since the last election in 2022.

The tycoon and politician has come to record two videos from the hospital for the social network Tik Tok: one to encourage Italians to vote in local elections and another to intervene in his party’s convention, claiming be “ready” to return to the fight.

The leader of Forza Italia, the party that brought Meloni to government in coalition, had several pending lawsuits and has been accused many times for corruption and abuse of power. However, all cases ended in acquittal or statute of limitations.

Born in Milan on September 29, 1936, Berlusconi served as Prime Minister of Italy three times, but his immense power was not exclusively political, as Il Cavaliere, as he was known until 2014, was a magnate of a business and media empire. He became a central figure in Italian politics, dominating it with his “undemocratic populism” (in the words of historian Paul Ginsborg) and the support of much of society. He was also founder and chairman of Mediaset, a media conglomerate controlled by the Spanish arm, Telecinco, and owned two football teams, AC Milan and Monza.