Silvio Berlusconi dies at the age of 86

Rome Smiling, he sits at the dining table, newspaper, highlighter, wine glass, telephone in front of him. One of his last personal Twitter posts shows Silvio Berlusconi as Italians should remember him: a bon vivant, but always dutiful, always pulling the strings. “I’m already working again on the most important issues of these days, ready and determined, as always, to work for the country I love,” he wrote under the picture at the end of March – and thanked him for the recovery wishes he had recently received so numerously have.

At that time, the 86-year-old had just returned from the hospital to his villa outside of Milan. In April, however, his condition worsened dramatically: shortness of breath, pneumonia, two weeks in intensive care. Berlusconi was only released after 45 days.

But he was admitted again at the end of last week – and never left the hospital alive: one of Italy’s greatest and most controversial politicians of the past decades died on Monday morning.

The son of a banker studied law in Milan, earning his first money as a vacuum cleaner salesman and as a singer in clubs and on cruise ships. In the 1960s he founded his first company in the construction sector, and in 1972 he entered the television business with a small local station in Milan. In the 1980s, his TV group Mediaset grew into the most powerful private broadcaster.

Now renamed Media for Europe (MFE), the company is also active in Spain and Germany, with a good 30 percent stake in Pro Sieben Sat 1. Through his holding Fininvest, Berlusconi also owned the majority in the largest Italian publisher Mondadori and a good third of the shares in Bank Mediolanum.

But Berlusconi was drawn to politics because of his broadcaster: in the early 1990s, Italian parliamentarians wanted to curtail Mediaset’s power. The “Cavaliere”, the knight, as he has been known since he was awarded the Order of Merit, promptly founded his own party in 1994. After one of the biggest corruption scandals in Italy’s history, the Christian Democratic Party collapsed – and Berlusconi tried to fish for center and centre-right voters with his Forza Italia (FI).

He succeeded, also thanks to his media power: he got 21 percent in the parliamentary elections and was elected prime minister with the votes of the right-wing Lega Nord and the post-fascist Alleanza Nazionale. The first purely right-wing alliance after the end of the war only lasted half a year.

Giorgia Meloni is his legacy

But that put Berlusconi on the political scene – and he never disappeared. He was elected Prime Minister three more times, most recently from 2008 to 2011. At that time he brought a young and inexperienced politician into his cabinet: Giorgia Meloni. Under him, she became youth minister – the cornerstone of her steep career, which made her head of government last fall, despite her post-fascist roots.

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September 2022, right-wing election campaign finale in Piazza del Popolo, one of the largest squares in Rome. Berlusconi relies on Lega boss Matteo Salvini and Meloni and can hardly walk to the lectern himself. With his almost chiseled permanent smile, his face heavily made up as always, Berlusconi stands in front of the crowd, reads a song of praise to himself from the teleprompter: He never increased taxes, always campaigned for the freedom of citizens, only a few illegal migrants into the country left.

It could have been his last major appearance, his political legacy. On this autumn evening he could have finally handed over the scepter to Salvini and Meloni, who have dominated the right-wing camp for years – and with their parties have clearly passed Forza Italia in terms of numbers. But Berlusconi didn’t want to stop until the end, wanted to get involved, even at the age of 86 and with limited health.

From the hospital he is said to have switched himself to regional party meetings. A few months ago he explained in an interview with the “Corriere della Sera”: “In the party I still decide.”

Although Berlusconi recently had no ministerial office, that did not prevent him from speaking out loudly in traditional and social media. He has repeatedly defended his good friend Vladimir Putin – and blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the war in Ukraine.

This was more than inconvenient for Meloni, since she had already made a clear commitment to Ukraine during the election campaign, spoke out in favor of arms deliveries and even went to Kiev in person in February. When she first met Zelenski in person on the sidelines of an EU summit, Berlusconi only said: “If I were prime minister, I would not have met Zelenski.” Since then, the diplomats in the foreign office have been trying to smooth things over; Berlusconi’s words are “damaging for Italy,” said one of Zelenski’s advisors.

Charges, trials, scandals

Berlusconi, who according to “Forbes” is one of the richest Italians with an estimated fortune of seven billion dollars, never minced his words in his career. He loved to joke, to polarize – many compatriots liked him for that. At times he also owned AC Milan, one of the two major football clubs in the financial metropolis. He liked to stage himself as a man of the people, with a white and red scarf in the stadium.

Because of his charming and engaging nature, the public also forgave him for various missteps and scandals. He liked to surround himself with pretty and younger women, and in 2008 made a former model Minister for Equal Opportunities. Berlusconi was married twice, leaves five children, and in 2012 he got engaged to a showgirl who was 50 years his junior. He has been with MP Marta Fascina since 2020, born in 1990.

Berlusconi has been accused of paying bribes, falsifying accounts and bribing judges. Most trials became statute-barred or dropped for lack of evidence. He was finally sentenced, among other things, for tax evasion worth millions. In 2013 he therefore briefly lost his political offices and his immunity. Actually, he should have been in prison for four years – but he didn’t have to go to prison because of his old age.

Several lawsuits were still pending against him until the very end: the most scandalous was the lawsuit that went down in history as “Bunga-Bunga”. Berlusconi is said to have invited prostitutes to his villa, including minors – and apparently paid the women hush money. In 2017 he was accused of bribing witnesses with ten million euros. In February, a court in Milan acquitted Berlusconi in the corruption trial.

Been in poor health for a long time

Berlusconi’s story is “bigger than life”, it is unrepeatable. These words come from Carlo Calenda, a political opponent from the opposition. From the far right to the far left, Berlusconi received encouragement, wishes for recovery and confirmation everywhere in his final days. A glance at the major newspapers also showed the importance of his work in the country: as soon as he was admitted to hospital in April, they all started live tickers about the state of health and meticulously listed Berlusconi’s medical records.

The billionaire had been ailing for a long time, and in September 2020 the country feared for him when he contracted Corona and then spent ten days in the hospital with pneumonia. Berlusconi then said he was scared to death. In 2019 he was operated on for an intestinal obstruction, and in 2016 he even had an open heart.

It is still too early to predict where his company and, above all, his party will be headed. His daughter Marina Berlusconi officially took over the business at Fininvest in 2005. At Forza Italia, however, Berlusconi did not allow anyone next to him – he was still party leader to the end.

There is speculation that Foreign Minister and Party Vice President Antonio Tajani could now take over. He was always a staunch supporter of Berlusconi. But there are some party colleagues who don’t want that. An internal power struggle could ensue.

The fact that a musical called “Berlusconi” celebrated its premiere in London at the end of March of all times is due to coincidence. In it, songs like “My Weekend with Putin” or “Bunga-Bunga” are performed. That must have hit Berlusconi’s taste, who was even on Tiktok recently: He craved likes and recognition, even in his old age.

One of his last personal Instagram posts is dated Palm Sunday. He stands smiling in the garden of his villa, wearing a dark blue suit, one hand outstretched towards the camera. Behind him everything is full of colorful tulips. “Today is Palm Sunday, but for me it’s also the festival of all flowers,” he writes under the photo. He wants to try to show the tulips better on TV. “Until then, I’ll tulip you,” he jokes. “Oh no, I made a mistake: I greet and hug you all!”

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