Silvio Berlusconi gestures earlier than a 2016 soccer match between his AC Milan and SS Lazio in Milan, Italy.
Marco Luzzani | Getty Images
Silvio Berlusconi, the (*86*) media mogul who served as Italian prime minister thrice between 1994 and 2011, has died. He was 86.
Berlusconi died at the San Raffaele hospital in Milan, in line with native media. CNBC was not instantly in a position to confirm the experiences.
He served as Italian prime minister thrice — from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011 — and since 2019 had served as a member of the European Parliament, the place he additionally labored from 1999 to 2001.
His Forza Italia social gathering is at the moment a junior accomplice in Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s ruling right-wing coalition.
Berlusconi suffered from a number of critical illnesses, together with Covid-19, which resulted in repeated hospitalizations starting in September 2020.
Last month, the tycoon was discharged from hospital the place he acquired six weeks of remedy for a lung an infection linked to persistent leukemia.
Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto stated by way of Twitter that Berlusconi’s dying leaves a “large void” and marked the tip of an period.
“I beloved him very a lot. Goodbye Silvio,” Crosetto stated, in line with a translation.
Born Sept. 29, 1936, Berlusconi confronted quite a few scandals and trials over tax schemes and sexual escapades. He was as soon as convicted, however later cleared, of fees of getting intercourse with an underage nightclub dancer, Karima El-Mahroug, at one in every of his wild “bunga bunga” events.
Berlusconi was the controlling shareholder of Mediaset, Italy’s largest industrial broadcaster.
In June 2023, his fortune was estimated at around $7 billion. He additionally owned the Italian soccer membership A.C. Milan from 1986 to 2017.
At a 2009 marketing campaign rally throughout his final stint as premier, he was struck in the face by a mentally ill man wielding a statuette of the Milan cathedral. The bloody assault broke Berlusconi’s nostril, minimize his lip and knocked out two tooth.
His 9 years as prime minister made him the third-longest head of presidency in Italy after fascist dictators Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Giolitti.
He had promised — however failed — to promote his belongings in Mediaset when he was prime minister.
In 2013, Berlusconi was convicted on fees that he paid for intercourse with the 17-year-old El-Mahroug at one in every of his events and was sentenced to seven years in jail and banned from public workplace for all times. Two years later, Italy’s highest courtroom ordered him acquitted.
Berlusconi was married twice and had 5 kids.
— CNBC’s Sam Meredith contributed to this report.