/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24016885/STK093_Google_04.jpg)
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24808816/Starfield__The_Settled_Systems___Supra_Et_Ultra_____Starfield__The_Settled_Systems___Supra_Et_Ultra_2023_7_25_94252.263_1440p_streamshot.png)
New Delhi: Flamboyant former Italian prime minister and media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi has died at the age of 86, according to the country’s leading news agency Ansa. Berlusconi, who built a huge media empire, was suffering from leukemia for some time. The late leader headed three Italian governments between 1994 and 2011. His party – Forza Italia – is a part of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing coalition.
Berlusconi died at San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, where he had spent about six weeks being treated for a lung infection linked to chronic myelomonocytic leukemia before being readmitted.
a fiery politician
Berlusconi was one of Italy’s most flamboyant politicians. He made a political comeback in 2017, despite a political career marred by sex scandals, numerous corruption allegations and tax fraud convictions. Born in 1936 to a middle-class family in Milan, Berlusconi began his business career in property development before founding Mediaset, Italy’s largest commercial broadcaster. He was also the owner of AC Milan Football Club between 1986 and 2017.
He founded the Forza Italia party in 1993. A year later, Berlusconi became the first Italian prime minister to be elected without holding any government office, and his second term in office, between 2001 and 2006, is the longest-serving by any Italian leader. since World War II. He returned to power in 2008 but was forced to step down in 2011 amid a severe debt crisis.
convicted of tax fraud
The influential Italian politician was convicted of tax fraud in late 2012, for which he served a year-long sentence while doing part-time community service at a residential home in Milan. His ban on running for office was lifted in time for the 2018 general elections when Forza Italia formed an alliance with the League and the Brothers of Italy. However, it fell short of the 40% needed to govern.
In 2019, Berlusconi won a seat in the European Parliament and in the general elections in October 2022, his party returned to power in a coalition led by Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy. Berlusconi was also elected as a senator.
In 2016, he underwent surgery to replace a faulty aortic valve and was hospitalized in September 2020 after being infected with Covid-19. Marta Fasina, 33, is the MP from Forza Italia, with whom he had a “symbolic wedding” in March 2022.
He is survived by five children.
