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Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has died at the age of 86 in Milan.
The media mogul, who led three Italian governments between 1994 and 2011 and whose Forza Italia party is a junior partner in the current governing coalition, had been suffering from leukemia for some time.
Berlusconi was one of Italy's most prominent politicians, making a political comeback in 2017 despite a career marred by sex scandals, countless corruption allegations and a conviction for tax fraud.
He spent six weeks in Milan's San Raffaele hospital this spring, undergoing treatment for a lung infection linked to chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, before being readmitted.
Born in Milan in 1936 to a middle-class family, Berlusconi began his business career in property development before going on to found Mediaset, Italy's largest commercial broadcaster. He also owned AC Milan football club between 1986 and 2017.
Forza Italia was founded in 1993. A year later, Berlusconi was the first prime minister to be elected without previously holding a government office, and his second term in office, between 2001 and 2006, is the longest served by any Italian leader since the second year. world war. He returned to power in 2008 but was forced to resign in 2011 amid an acute debt crisis.
Berlusconi was convicted of tax fraud in late 2012, for which he served his one-year sentence doing part-time community service at a residential home in Milan. His ban on running for office was lifted in time for the general election in 2018, when Forza Italia ran in coalition with the League and the Brothers of Italy, but fell short of the 40% required to govern.
In 2019, Berlusconi won a seat in the European parliament and in the general election in October 2022 his party returned to power in a coalition led by Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy. Berlusconi was also elected as a senator.
Nicknamed Il Cavaliere (the knight), Berlusconi was often regarded as the "kingmaker" in Italian politics.
In 2016, he underwent surgery to replace a damaged aortic valve and was hospitalized with Covid in September 2020. He had ongoing complications related to the virus, an experience he described as "the worst of my life".
He was married twice and was in a relationship with Francesca Pascale, 37, for seven years before hooking up with Marta Fascina, 33, a Forza Italia MP with whom he had a "symbolic marriage" in March 2022. He is survived by five children.
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