Silvio Berlusconi dead: The media mogul-turned-prime minister left behind an enduring political legacy that affects Italy more than a decade later
Mired in a sex scandal, Silvio Berlusconi held a dinner party at a posh Rome hotel in 2010 to charm reporters – but struggled to play it straight: “You’re all invited to the bunga bunga!” he told us defiantly. Then the impish smile. “But you’d be disappointed.”
When it came to entertainment, Berlusconi – the media mogul-turned-prime minister, his hair slicked back and face orange from a fake tan – rarely disappointed. When it came to governing, he disappointed many parts of his country.
Yet upon leaving office a year after that dinner, never to return to power, the Milanese magnate left behind an enduring political legacy – and leadership vacuum – that affects Italy more than a decade later.
Over the course of his life and political career, Berlusconi, who died on Monday at the age of 86, was many things: a cruise-ship crooner, a media entrepreneur, Italy’s richest man, and its longest-serving postwar leader.
Pic: AP
Berlusconi lifts the trophy after AC Milan defeated Liverpool in the Champions League final Athens in 2007
Above all, he was a larger-than-life figure who polarised modern Italian society and politics like few before him. He summed it up himself once when he said: “50% of Italians hate me, 50% love me”.
He revolutionised Italian politics and went on to dominate it for 20 years. A conservative prime minister, he pioneered a brand of populism that took hold in other countries long after he had lost power, using wealth, fame and fierce rhetoric to gain power, much as Donald Trump was to do years later.
Berlusconi lived an unapologetically lavish life. In AC Milan, he once owned one of Europe’s most successful football teams. He used his media empire to hobnob with celebs and sustain his political career. Twice divorced, he was often seen with women decades younger than him.
“The majority of Italians in their hearts would love to be like me and see themselves in me and in how I behave,” he once said.
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Topless protester confronts Berlusconi in 2018
‘Unfit to lead’?
Berlusconi took advantage of the vacuum created by the corruption scandals of the early 1990s, which wiped out an entire generation of politicians, to launch his political career.
His critics said he wanted to save his business interests, which had been protected by politicians who were now disgraced and had lost power.
They saw him as a threat to democracy, a dangerous man who amassed unparalleled political and media power for a Western country.
Berlusconi was said to be furious at this cover of The Economist. Pic: AP
The Economist famously deemed him “unfit” to lead the country, infuriating Berlusconi when he was trying to burnish his international credentials.
He called himself the “chosen one” to come to Italy’s rescue and save it from communists.
And he elicited worship among his admirers, who loved his can-do attitude, plain-speaking and break with the traditional political establishment.
Berlusconi and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Pic: AP
A young Berlusconi singing on a cruise ship
Longest-serving prime minister
In a country that traditionally distrusts its political class, he was an outsider who promised Italians a dream, or “a new economic miracle”, as his early electoral slogan put it.
Over and over, Italians believed him: he was prime minister for nine years over four stints between 1994 and 2011 – longer than anybody since World War II.
In his prime, the perennially tanned Berlusconi – who in old age was surgically enhanced and had thicker hair thanks to a transplant – was a formidable and charismatic campaigner who defied the odds to keep coming back to power.
Berlusconi said his success in life was down to three things: “work, work and work”.
But he was also a crowd-pleaser who loved a joke and a party, did not shy away from the occasional singing at discos, and often boasted of his success with women.
Eventually he resigned in shame in 2011, weakened by the “bunga bunga” scandals and amid Europe’s debt crisis.
In between those turbulent years, there were plenty of gaffes, sexist comments and racist remarks.
Berlusconi and then-German chancellor Angela Merkel, with then-Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko
Berlusconi with Barack and Michelle Obama during a G20 summit in 2009
He described a newly elected Barack Obama as “young, handsome and tanned”; was reported to have used a vulgar term to describe Angela Merkel as sexually unattractive – and once at an EU summit kept her waiting while he was on the phone; likened a German politician to a Nazi concentration camp guard; said it is “better to be fond of beautiful girls than to be gay”.
Berlusconi famously sported a bandana to welcome Tony and Cherie Blair to Sardinia in 2004. Pic: AP
Former US president George W Bush with Berlusconi at his ranch in Texas in 2003. Pic: AP
Berlusconi took controversial decisions, first and foremost going to war in Iraq in 2003 alongside George W Bush and Tony Blair, a move the majority of Italians opposed.
He played host to Muammar Gaddafi and his entourage, and was a close ally and friend of Vladimir Putin, hosting him in his Sardinian villa.
Berlusconi greets then-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Pic: AP
Even after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he struggled to distance himself from Putin, saying there would be no war if Volodymyr Zelenskyy had “stopped attacking the two independent republics of the Donbas” and adding that he judged the Ukrainian leader “very very negatively” and would not meet with him if he were still the Italian prime minister.
Berlusconi and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Pic: AP
Mr Putin (L) and Berlusconi in Russia in 2003. Pic: AP
Legal cases
For years, Berlusconi managed to survive scandals that would have ended the career of many a politician – conflict-of-interest accusations, claims of corruption, even criminal trials.
He was convicted for tax fraud; and later of paying a minor for sex and abuse of power as part of the sex scandal – a conviction that was subsequently overturned.
He was even expelled from parliament and barred from public office, but the ban was lifted in 2018.
Throughout, he denied any wrongdoing, saying he was the victim of a political vendetta by left-leaning magistrates.
Berlusconi repeatedly made laws to protect himself and his business empire. But he shrugged off all controversy.
“All citizens are equal before the law, but maybe I am a little more equal than the others since I’ve received the mandate to govern the country,” he said, with an Orwellian twist, during a court appearance at one of his trials in Milan in 2003.
Berlusconi in 2004 with his then-wife Veronica Lario. Pic: AP
‘Bunga bunga’ parties
Ultimately, he engulfed Italy in a lurid scandal of sex and late-night “bunga bunga” parties that brought incalculable damage to the international reputation of the country and ridicule across the globe.
Between 2009 and 2010, when he was prime minister, Italian newspapers were filled with tawdry details of parties featuring scores of young women.
It started with revelations he had attended the birthday party of an 18-year-old who called him “Daddy”; it continued with tales of high-end escorts, accusations of underage girls being paid for sex; and of young women dressed as “sexy Santas” or pole-dancing for Berlusconi and his friends.
Karima el-Mahroug, also known as Ruby, was at the centre of Berlusconi’s sex scandals. Pic: AP
In one famous case, a 17-year-old Moroccan girl nicknamed Ruby Rubacuori (or “Ruby the Heart-Stealer”) was released from police custody after Berlusconi intervened with authorities – with his allies telling parliament that she was believed to be the niece of the late Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
Berlusconi has always maintained the “bunga bunga” parties were simply “elegant soirees” where nothing unsavoury went on.
“The parties were elegant and proper, the rooms were filled with guests and waiters”, he told journalists gathered at the hotel in Rome on a warm April night in 2010.
“We could even have shot the whole thing on camera, there was nothing to hide”.
Pic: AP
One more comeback?
In the latter years of his life, Berlusconi was set back by a series of health issues, including open heart surgery in 2016, when he was 79.
He contracted COVID during the pandemic and became seriously ill.
He later described the illness as the “worst experience of my life”, and urged Italians to wear masks and maintain social distancing.
Berlusconi tried one more comeback in 2022, making an unlikely, and ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to become president. While the role is largely ceremonial, the president is seen as a figure of high moral standing who stays above the political fray.
But he did win a Senate seat at last year’s election, returning to parliament for the first time in almost a decade, with his Forza Italia party becoming part of the governing coalition supporting Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Berlusconi poses with then-US president Barack Obama and then-Russian president Dmitry Medvedev
Legacy
In many of his views and remarks, Berlusconi sounded like a dinosaur.
Yet he was in a way ahead of his time: a Trumpist tycoon who offended his way to success, who considered self-interest to be the national interest, and who employed charisma and TV marketing to shatter the norms of politics, and disorient his opponents.
Whether Berlusconi is remembered for his success or for greed; whether for charm or vanity; whether for ending the old corruption or just making it his own, he left an indelible mark on the Italian story.
The man convicted of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher has been charged with sexual assault against an ex-girlfriend.
Rudy Guede, 38, was the only person who was definitively convicted of the murder of 21-year-old Ms Kercher in Perugia, Italy, back in 2007.
He will be standing trial again in November after an ex-girlfriend filed a police report in the summer of 2023 accusing Guede of mistreatment, personal injury and sexual violence.
Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was released from prison for the murder of Leeds University student Ms Kercher in 2021, after having served about 13 years of a 16-year sentence.
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Since last year – when this investigation was still ongoing – Guede has been under a “special surveillance” regime, Sky News understands, meaning he was banned from having any contact with the woman behind the sexual assault allegations, including via social media, and had to inform police any time he left his city of residence, Viterbo, as ruled by a Rome court.
Guede has been serving a restraining order and fitted with an electronic ankle tag.
The Kercher murder case, in the university city of Perugia, was the subject of international attention.
Ms Kercher, a 21-year-old British exchange student, was found murdered in the flat she shared with her American roommate, Amanda Knox.
The Briton’s throat had been cut and she had been stabbed 47 times.
(L-R) Raffaele Sollecito, Meredith Kercher and Amanda Knox. File pic: AP
Ms Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were placed under suspicion.
Both were initially convicted of murder, but Italy’s highest court overturned their convictions, acquitting them in 2015.
World
IDF blames ‘technical error’ after Gaza officials say children collecting water killed in strike
The Israeli military says it missed its intended target after Gaza officials said 10 Palestinians – including six children – were killed in a strike at a water collection point.
Another 17 people were wounded in the strike on a water distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp, said Ahmed Abu Saifan, an emergency physician at Al Awda Hospital.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it had intended to hit an Islamic Jihad militant but a “technical error with the munition” had caused the missile to fall “dozens of metres from the target”.
The IDF said the incident is under review, adding that it “works to mitigate harm to uninvolved civilians as much as possible” and “regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians”.
A wounded child is treated after the strike on the water collection point. Pic: Reuters
Officials at Al Awda Hospital said it received 10 bodies after the Israeli strike on the water collection point and six children were among the dead.
Ramadan Nassar, who lives in the area, said around 20 children and 14 adults were lined up Sunday morning to fill up water.
When the strike occurred, everyone ran and some, including those who were severely injured, fell to the ground, he said.
Blood stains are seen on containers at the water collection point. Pic: Reuters
In total, 19 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, local health officials said.
Two women and three children were among nine killed after an Israeli strike on a home in the central town of Zawaida, officials at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said.
Israel has claimed it hit more than 150 targets in the besieged enclave in the past day.
The latest strikes come after the Israel military opened fire near an aid centre in Rafah on Saturday. The Red Cross said 31 people were killed.
The IDF has said it fired “warning shots” near the aid distribution site but it was “not aware of injured individuals” as a result.
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Palestinians shot while seeking aid, says paramedic
The war in Gaza started in response to Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people and saw about 250 taken hostage.
More than 58,000 Palestinians have since been killed, with more than half being women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
Read more:
Palestinians shot while seeking aid, says paramedic
Dozens of MPs call for UK to recognise Palestine as state
US President Donald Trump has said he is closing in on another ceasefire agreement that would see more hostages released and potentially wind down the war.
But after two days of talks this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there were no signs of a breakthrough, as a new sticking point emerged over the deployment of Israeli troops during the truce.
Hamas still holds 50 hostages, with fewer than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
World
‘At least 59 killed’ in Gaza after Israeli military opens fire near aid centre and carries out strikes
At least 59 Palestinians have reportedly been killed after the Israeli military opened fire near an aid centre in Gaza and carried out strikes across the territory.
The Red Cross, which operates a field hospital in Rafah, said 25 people were “declared dead upon arrival” and “six more died after admittance” following gunfire near an aid distribution centre in the southern Gazan city.
The humanitarian organisation added that it also received 132 patients “suffering from weapon-related injuries” after the incident.
The Red Cross said: “The overwhelming majority of these patients sustained gunshot wounds, and all responsive individuals reported they were attempting to access food distribution sites.”
The organisation said the number of deaths marks the hospital’s “largest influx of fatalities” since it began operations in May last year.
The IDF has said it fired “warning shots” near the aid distribution site but it was “not aware of injured individuals” as a result.
It said in a statement: “Earlier today, several suspects were identified approaching IDF troops operating in the Rafah area, posing a threat to the troops, hundreds of metres from the aid distribution site.
“IDF troops operated in order to prevent the suspects from approaching them and fired warning shots.”
Palestinians mourn a loved one following the incident near the aid centre. Pic: Reuters
Mother’s despair over shooting
Somia Alshaar told Sky News her 17-year-old son Nasir was shot dead while visiting the aid centre after she told him not to go.
She said: “He went to get us tahini so we could eat.
“He went to get flour. He told me ‘mama, we don’t have tahini. Today I’ll bring you flour. Even if it kills me, I will get you flour’.
“He left the house and didn’t return. They told me at the hospital: your son…’Oh God, oh Lord’.”
Asked where her son was shot, she replied: “In the chest. Yes, in the chest.”
Somia Alshaar, pictured with her daughter, says her son was shot dead. Pic: Reuters
‘A policy of mass murder’
Hassan Omran, a paramedic with Gaza’s ministry of health, told Sky News after the incident that humanitarian aid centres in Gaza are now “centres of mass death”.
Speaking in Khan Younis, he said: “Today, there were more than 150 injuries and more than 20 martyrs at the aid distribution centres… the Israeli occupation deliberately kills and commits genocide. The Israeli occupation is carrying out a policy of mass murder.
“They call people to come get their daily food, and then, when citizens arrive at these centres, they are killed in cold blood.
“All the victims have gunshot wounds to the head and chest, meaning the enemy is committing these crimes deliberately.”
Israel has rejected genocide accusations and denies targeting civilians.
Two boys mourn their brother at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Pic: Reuters
‘Lies being peddled’
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the controversial US and Israeli-backed group which operates the distribution centre near Rafah, said: “Hamas is claiming there was violence at our aid distribution sites today. False.
“Once again, there were no incidents at or in the immediate vicinity of our sites.
“But that’s not stopping some from spreading the lies being peddled by ‘officials’ at the Hamas-controlled Nasser Hospital.”
The Red Cross said its field hospital in Rafah has recorded more than 250 fatalities and treated more than 3,400 “weapon-wounded patients” since new food distribution sites were set up in Gaza on 27 May.
Read more:
‘At least 798 killed’ at Gaza aid points
’10 children killed’ waiting for Gaza health clinic to open
Israel says permanent ceasefire ‘questionable’
Palestinians inspect the wreckage after an Israeli airstrike in Deir al Balah. Pic: AP
It comes after four children and two women were among at least 13 people who died in Deir al Balah, in central Gaza, after Israeli strikes pounded the area starting late on Friday, officials in Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the territory said.
Fifteen others died in Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, according to Nasser Hospital.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not responded to a request for comment on the reported deaths.
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Israeli has been carrying out attacks in Gaza since Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages on 7 October 2023.
Hamas still holds 50 hostages, with fewer than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
US President Donald Trump has said he is closing in on another ceasefire agreement that would see more hostages released and potentially wind down the war.
But after two days of talks this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there were no signs of a breakthrough.
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The latest fatalities in Gaza comes as a 20-year-old Palestinian-American man was beaten to death by settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Friday, the Palestinian Health ministry said.
Sayafollah Musallet, also known as Saif, was killed during a confrontation between Palestinians and settlers in Sinjil, north of Ramallah, the ministry said.
A second man, Hussein Al-Shalabi, 23, died after being shot in the chest.
Mr Musallet’s family, from Tampa Florida, has called on the US State Department to lead an “immediate investigation”.
A State Department spokesperson said it was aware of the incident but it had no further comment “out of respect for the privacy of the family and loved ones” of the reported victim.
The Israeli military said the confrontation broke out after Palestinians threw rocks at Israelis, lightly injuring them.
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