Silvio Berlusconi, former Prime Minister of Italy and former owner of Milan, died at the age of 86 on Monday morning (12).
Berlusconi was admitted to the San Raffaele hospital in Milan, accompanied by Marta Fascina, his wife, and their children, according to information from the Italian media.
The politician was diagnosed with leukemia and, in recent months, he also suffered from a lung infection. Last April 5, he was hospitalized for treatment of the disease and remained in the hospital for more than a month.
Three days ago he was hospitalized once again for routine examinations, but his health deteriorated rapidly again.
Born in 1936 in Milan, Silvio Berlusconi worked as a crooner on a passenger ship when he was still young to help pay for his studies. He graduated in law.
Four times Prime Minister of Italy and a strong political image in the country, Berlusconi He collected controversies and remarkable moments throughout his life.
Fortuna
The tycoon built his wealth with the media holding Fininvest in the 1970s, before entering politics in the 90s.
In the late 1970s and 1980s, he circumvented the monopoly of Italy's state TV, RAI, by creating a network in which local stations showed the same programming. RAI and Mediaset represented around 90% of the national market in 2006.
Berlusconi had a fortune of almost US$7 billion (around R$34 billion), according to the latest update of the Forbes billionaires ranking, and was the 5th richest in Italy. In the Forbes world rankings, he was the 348th richest.
He was also the owner of AC Milan, an Italian football team.
Friendship with Putin
His friendship with Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, has put him at odds with Giorgia Meloni, current Prime Minister of Italy.
On his 86th birthday, Putin sent Berlusconi well wishes and vodka, and the Italian boasted that he had returned the favor by sending back Italian wine.
Politics
When the “Clean Hands” corruption scandals decimated the political establishment in the 1990s, Berlusconi founded Forza Italia in 1994, when he began his first term.
In 2006, as Italy was derided as “the sick man of Europe,” with its economy mired in zero growth and its budget deficit growing, Berlusconi narrowly lost the general election to center-left leader Romano Prodi, who had been President of the European Union Commission of the Union.
In 2008, he recovered for what would be his last term as prime minister. It ended abruptly in 2011 when financial markets lost confidence in their ability to prevent Italy from succumbing to the crisis. Berlusconi reluctantly resigned.
The Italian was at the center of a series of investigations and trials, almost all of which were opened after he entered politics in 1994. In total, he faced 35 criminal trials, but only obtained one definitive conviction.
Weddings
Berlusconi married for the first time in 1965 with Carla Dall'Oglio, with whom he had two children, Marina and Piersilvio. He married his second wife, Veronica Lario, in 1990, and they had three children, Barbara, Eleonora and Luigi.
In 2022, he held a symbolic wedding with Marta Fascina, 53 years his junior.
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