Silvio Berlusconi, Flamboyant and Controversial Italian Media Tycoon and Former Prime Minister, Dies at 86

Georg Szalai
·3 min read
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Flamboyant and controversial Italian media mogul and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who made headlines with his media empire, scandals over sex-fueled parties and corruption allegations alike, has died. He was 86.

Local media reports said he died at the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan. Berlusconi had been admitted to the hospital Friday for treatment of chronic leukemia, according to the Associated Press.

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The twice-divorced tycoon, known for his perpetual tan and much younger girlfriends, made a name for himself as one of the richest people in the country and as the controlling shareholder of Mediaset, Italy’s largest media company, which owns three leading private TV channels. Seen by critics as an Italian version of Rupert Murdoch and other media titans, Berlusconi was regularly attacked for his dominance of the Italian media landscape.

After getting a law degree, he started a real estate company and had success by constructing apartment complexes for middle-class families amid a post-war boom. Berlusconi started his push into media in the 1970s by launching a TV network focused on U.S. hit shows, soap operas and variety shows featuring scantily clad women, which took on the state TV monopoly of RAI.

Through his Fininvest holding company, the Berlusconi family controls Mondadori, Italy’s largest publisher, film producer Medusa Film, and more. It also owned the soccer club AC Milan until it sold it to a Chinese consortium in 2017.

But Berlusconi also made headlines with his extravagant lifestyle, including so-called “bunga bunga parties.” An exotic dancer once told prosecutors in Milan that these parties were like orgies, with Berlusconi and a group of young women performing a ritual in the nude.

As a populist, the mogul first came to political power in 1994, after forming the center-right party Forza Italia, and led several conservative governments between then and 2011. With nine years in power, the three-time prime minister is Italy’s longest-serving government leader since World War II. He drew criticism for his electoral coalitions with right-wing populist parties, such as Lega Nord, and continuing to control Mediaset while in power, among other things.

In 2009, his party merged into The People of Freedom, Berlusconi’s new political vehicle. In 2013, Berlusconi founded a new Forza Italia. The mogul lost support and popularity among voters amid legal issues of his media business and After being convicted of tax fraud in 2013, he had to surrender his Senate seat. But he then served in the European Parliament and in 2022, as junior partner in a coalition led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, returned to the Italian parliament as a senator, a position he held until his death.

Berlusconi, who had a reputation as a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, caused much debate when he blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for Russia’s February 2022 invasion despite Meloni’s support for Ukraine.

The mogul had various health issues over the years. In April, Berlusconi was treated for a lung infection related to his chronic leukemia. In 2020, he spent time in a hospital after contracting COVID-19. In 1997, Berlusconi successfully battled prostate cancer, including by surgery. In 2006, he had heart tests after fainting during a speech. A few weeks later he received a pacemaker at a U.S. hospital. He also has had bowel surgery in the past.

Born in 1936 in Milan to a bank employee and a homemaker, Berlusconi soon used his talents as a showman, making money by singing at parties and on cruise ships.

He was always a proud showman and entertainer. In 2005, for example, he told the press that he used his charms to persuade the then-President of Finland, Tarja Halonen, to give up her country’s claim to host the new European Food Safety Authority, saying: “I had to use all my playboy tactics.”

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