Former Italian Prime Minister and Senator Silvio Berlusconi (Milan, 1936) died at the San Raffaele hospital in the Lombard capital due to complications related to leukemia that had afflicted him for some time.
The businessman and politician was 86 years old and in recent months he had been admitted for health problems on multiple occasions. Having passed critical status several times had added to his legend of uomo forte, “the Cavaliere”.
“One of the architects of popular Italy at the end of the 90s and the beginning of this century (…) without a doubt, the most influential figure of the last quarter of a century in Italy”, describes it The country.
The flamboyant media mogul took over as first time prime minister in 1994. He led the center-right Forza Italia party, which formed a coalition under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni after her September 2022 victory.
“A fighter”
Meloni posted a message of condolences shortly after the news broke.
“Silvio Berlusconi was above all a fighter (…) With him, Italy learned that it should never allow itself to be limited or give up. With him we have fought, won and lost many battles,” he said in video the leader of the ruling right-wing party Fratelli di Italia.
Defense Minister Guido Crosetto reacted to the news by saying that Berlusconi’s death leaves “a huge void.”
“An era ends. Goodbye, Silvio,” Crosetto wrote in a tweet, in which he also says that he “loved” Berlusconi very much.
“A delinquent”
Throughout his life, Berlusconi faced numerous legal proceedings, one of which ended with a final conviction. Previously, none of the criminal proceedings against him had ended with a final conviction by way of acquittal, prescription, amnesty or decriminalization of the contested crimes.
Some of the processes were canceled in the investigation phase; in others a trial was instituted in which Berlusconi was acquitted. In some trials, in the first instance or on appeal, sentences of conviction were handed down, later eliminated.
On August 1, 2013, the Court of Cassation confirmed the sentence of the appeal court in the Mediaset trial to four years in prison (three of which benefited from pardon). However, an alternative measure to detention was ordered against him: social service at the Sagrada Família clinic from May 9, 2014 to March 6, 2015. Berlusconi then requested rehabilitation, granted by the Milan surveillance court.
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