Three-time Italian Prime Minister, Mediaset owner and former AC Milan club president Silvio Berlusconi died today at the age of 86

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi died on Monday at the San Raffaele hospital in Milan as a result of various heart complications he was suffering from. The 86-year-old Milan-born businessman had been admitted several times before, most recently last Friday. This time, however, he was unable to overcome the chronic leukemia he was suffering from.

silvio berlusconi

Image from Silvio Berlusconi’s twitter.

Berlusconi, who had five children and was currently married to Marta Fascina, 33, was undoubtedly the most influential figure of the last quarter of a century in Italy. He founded Forza Italia, a party with which he won the 1994 elections, although the project did not receive sufficient support and he died a year later. He came back in 2001 with the coalition House of Freedoms and he has been in office for two consecutive legislatures. During this time he made the media power of the country his own. He resigned from politics in 2006 and was replaced by Romano Prodi.

A life shrouded in scandal

He was indicted on numerous occasions for prostitution of minors and illegal wiretapping, and for years his links with the Mafia and the dubious origin of his fortune, which was linked to the Cosa Nostra, were investigated. In the end, however, he was convicted only for tax fraud, a sentence that cost him political disqualification in 2011 and marked the beginning of his decline. In 2022 he returned to Parliament as a senator, when his party became associated with the government of Giorgi Meloni and he took a step aside.

The villa Martino d’Acore, in the town of Monza, in the north of Milan, welcomes Berlusconi’s coffin from today. Tomorrow it will be moved to the headquarters of his television station, Mediaset, in the Cologno Monzese district, according to local media reports. The funeral will take place on Wednesday and is expected to be attended by authorities from the political, social and economic life of the country.