Silvio Berlusconi: Former Italian prime minister dies

Italy’s controversial former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has died.

The 86-year-old senator and leader of the Forza Italia party was admitted to hospital on Friday.

He had been discharged from hospital last month where he was treated for over six weeks for a lung infection linked to chronic leukaemia.

Mr Berlusconi’s death brings an end to one of the most colourful and controversial political careers of recent times, with the scandal-hit prime minister famous for his notorious “bunga bunga” parties.

The sex parties, which involved prostitutes, caused a major political scandal in Italy.

Mr Berlusconi was prime minister when he was formally convicted of paying Karima El Mahroug, known by the stage name Ruby Rubacuori (Italian for “Ruby the Heartstealer”), for sexual services between February and May 2010 when she was under the age of 18.

He was later found not guilty on appeal.

Mr Berlusconi led Italy three times from 1994-1995, 2001-2006 and 2008-2011.

He stepped down as prime minister for the last time in 2011 as Italy came close to a Greece-style debt crisis, facing several scandals,

A decade ago he was banned from holding public office over a tax fraud conviction stemming from dealings in his media empire, but the ban was lifted in 2018.

He returned to the Italian Senate after a national election last September.

Last year he triggered uproar with comments about Russian President Vladimir Putin when he boasted the two had exchanged birthday greetings and blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the war.

Mr Berlusconi built Italy’s largest commercial TV network and gained an international profile as the owner of the football club AC Milan before he entered politics in 1994 after the previous political class was brought down by a corruption scandal.

Berlusconi’s recent health troubles

The former Italian leader was treated in intensive care at Milan’s San Raffaele Hospital in April for a lung infection related to leukaemia, his doctors said at the time.

They added he had chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia – a rare type of blood cancer – that was not acute.

The billionaire media tycoon suffered several bouts of ill health in recent years, including contracting COVID in 2020.

After being discharged from a 10-day hospital stay, he said the disease had been “insidious” and was the most dangerous challenge he had ever faced.

He has had a pacemaker for years, underwent heart surgery to replace an aortic valve in 2016 and had overcome prostate cancer.