Silvio Berlusconi dies aged 86

The former Italian PM had been suffering from leukaemia

Silvio Berlusconi during the Forza Italia party convention last year in Naples. Getty Images

Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has died at the age of 86.

The billionaire businessman, who created Italy's largest media company before transforming the political landscape, had been suffering from leukaemia and was recently treated for a lung infection.

His Mediaset television network announced his death on Monday with a smiling photo of him on its homepage and the headline: “Berlusconi is dead.”

He was admitted to a Milan hospital on Friday for what aides said were pre-planned tests related to his leukaemia.

It came just three weeks after he was discharged following a six-week stay at Milan's San Raffaele hospital, during which doctors revealed he was suffering from the blood cancer.

Mr Berlusconi had suffered ill health for years, having heart surgery in 2016 and going into hospital for Covid in 2020. He had also suffered from prostate cancer.

Italy has declared a national day of mourning for Wednesday, the date of his funeral.

The larger-than-life character was Italy's longest serving prime minister but was also plagued by scandal.

Mr Berlusconi was at the centre of a series of investigations and trials, almost all of them opened after he entered politics in 1994. In all, he faced 35 criminal court cases, but clocked up only one conviction.

That was for tax fraud, false accounting and embezzlement tied to his media empire.

In 2013, the top court confirmed Mr Berlusconi's sentence of four years' imprisonment, three of which were covered by a pardon.

Given his age, the former prime minister was able to complete his sentence as community service from 2014 to 2015. He was banned from political office until 2018.

He was rarely seen in public, despite being re-elected to the senate last year and remaining the official head of his right-wing Forza Italia party.

Defence Minister Guido Crosetto wrote on Twitter that Mr Berlusconi's death leaves a “huge void” that amounted to the end of an era.

“I loved him very much. Farewell Silvio,” he said.

Forza Italia is part of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's right-wing coalition. Although Mr Berlusconi himself did not have a role in government, his death is likely to destabilise Italian politics in the coming months.

Pope Francis said Mr Berlusconi had carried out “public responsibilities with an energetic temperament”.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a former Danish prime minister and former Nato secretary general, said: “We had our political differences but on a personal level, he was always charming and engaging company.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted about her sadness. She said he “led Italy in a time of political transition and since then continued to shape his beloved country.”

A representative for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “Silvio Berlusconi made a huge impact on Italian politics over several decades, and our thoughts are with the Italian people and his family.”

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban added: “Gone is the great fighter.”

His friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin put him at odds with Ms Meloni, a staunch supporter of Ukraine. On his 86th birthday, while the war raged, Mr Putin sent Mr Berlusconi best wishes and vodka, and the Italian boasted he returned the favour by sending back Italian wine.

On Monday, Mr Putin hailed him as a “patriarch” of Italian politics and a true patriot who improved Italy's standing on the world stage.

“I have always sincerely admired his wisdom, his ability to make balanced, far-sighted decisions even in the most difficult situations,” Mr Putin said in the telegram released by the Kremlin. “During each of our meetings, I was literally charged with his incredible vitality, optimism and sense of humour.”

He was also friendly with Libya's former leader, Muammar Qaddafi, with whom he was pictured strolling in Rome's squares in 2008, during a series of trips that made headlines for the colourful nature of their encounters.

After starting out as a cruise-ship entertainer and door-to-door salesman, Mr Berlusconi went on to build a massive media empire.

The property industry brought him his first successes in the early 1960s before he branched into television.

“Silvio Berlusconi invented commercial television in Europe, at the same time as the British, while the rest of the continent was still living under national public television monopolies,” said Carlo Alberto Carnevale Maffe, associate professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at Milan's Bocconi School of Management.

He created a style that was “very popular, on the same model as English tabloids, bringing daily life on to the small screen”, he said.

In the 1970s, national private TV channels were banned in Italy but Mr Berlusconi got around this rule by buying up local channels, on which he broadcast the same programmes simultaneously.

The result was the appearance of a national channel, “which allowed him to attract many more advertisers”, said Umberto Bertele, professor emeritus at Milan Polytechnic's School of Management.

He also invested in publishing, in 1990 buying Italy's main publisher of books and magazines, Mondadori, and in cinema with the production company Medusa. He invested in Mediolanum Bank and football, notably owning Milan AC for 31 years, before buying lower league club Monza.

They were all grouped together under the umbrella group Fininvest, which found itself on the verge of collapse in 1993 due to huge debts linked to a residential development.

It recovered after Mr Berlusconi decided to go into politics that year in an effort he said “to halt the left”.

Mr Berlusconi led Italy three times between 1994 and 2011, for a total of nine years, wooing voters with a promise of economic success only to be forced out as a debt crisis gripped his country.

“I am the Jesus Christ of politics,” Italian media once quoted Mr Berlusconi as telling supporters. “I am a patient victim, I put up with everyone, I sacrifice myself for everyone.”

But he insisted politics was never his passion.

“It made me lose a lot of time and energy. If I entered the ring, it was just to prevent the communists from taking power,” he told Chi magazine in an interview to mark his 80th birthday in 2016.

Silvio Berlusconi – a life in pictures

Berlusconi makes his point at the Senate in Rome, October 2022. Getty

From left, heavyweights of Italian politics Matteo Salvini, Berlusconi, Giorgia Meloni and Maurizio Lupi on stage at a joint rally of a coalition of far-right and right-wing parties. AFP

Berlusconi votes at a polling station in Milan in March 2018. Getty

Berlusconi hails supporters outside his house, Villa San Martino, in Milan, July 2013. Getty

AC Milan players pose with chairman Berlusconi after winning the Berlusconi Trophy in Milan in 2011. Getty

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meets Berlusconi, then Italian Prime Minister, in Rome in June 2011. Getty

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Italian counterpart Mr Berlusconi at a press conference in Rome in June 2011. Getty

US President Barack Obama talks to Berlusconi as they attend the G8 summit in 2011 in Deauville, France. Getty

Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi and Berlusconi arrive at a ceremony for Italia-Libya friendship day at Salvo D'Acquisto barracks, Rome, in 2010. Getty

Vladimir Putin and Berlusconi attend a press conference in 2010 in Lesmo, Italy. Getty

Berlusconi with then French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Elysee Palace in Paris in 2010. Getty

Berlusconi with his daughters Barbara, left, and Eleonora in 1994. Getty

Berlusconi holds a press conference announcing his debut in politics in Rome in 1993. Getty

Berlusconi, president of AC Milan, his mother Rosa Bossi, right, and his children Eleonora and Luigi hold a pennant celebrating the club winning their 12th Serie A title in 1992. Getty Images

Mr Berlusconi with journalist Indro Montanelli in Rome, 1977. Getty