Italy to commemorate former premier Berlusconi with postage stamp

Late former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, one of the most influential but also controversial figures in Italian politics, is to be featured on a postage stamp, his Forza Italia party announced on Wednesday.

The stamp will be available on the first anniversary of Berlusconi's death, Forza Italia, which was founded by Berlusconi, said.

The centre-right politician died on June 12 last year at the age of 86 after a period of ill health.

Berlusconi was one of the most influential figures in Italian and European politics from the mid-1990s onwards. Forza Italia is one of three parties in the coalition government of current Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

A real estate, media and football mogul who moved into politics, Berlusconi was a controversial and at times divisive figure in Italian public life who shaped Italian politics for decades.

He enjoyed a successful career as a businessman before reinventing himself as a conservative politician, who proved prone to public gaffes and run-ins with the law.

He was Italy's longest-serving prime minister, with terms in office in 1994, 2001-2006 and 2008-2011. Berlusconi's rise to power was meteoric, winning his first elections in 1994 at the helm of a new party named after a football slogan, Forza Italia, or Go Italy.

He resigned in disgrace in 2011, at the height of a national debt crisis that risked destabilizing the entire eurozone, while he was on trial for tax evasion and soliciting sex from an underage prostitute, in the infamous "bunga bunga" affair.

The numerous scandals Berlusconi was involved in have led to debates in Italy about how he should be remembered. The renaming of streets and buildings, for example, is seen as controversial in many Italian cities.

The decision in favour of a Berlusconi stamp was made at a cabinet meeting in Rome, Forza Italia said. It is not yet known what the stamp will look like.