He was one of the strong men of Italy. Silvio Berlusconi, a renowned businessman and politician, known for his escapades and his many back and forth at the head of the Italian government, died on Monday June 12 at the age of 86, his entourage said.
Born September 26, 1936, Silvio Berlusconi first became known to the general public by founding, in the 1970s, the Fininvest group, an Italian holding company, which also includes the first Italian advertising company. But if Silvio Berlusconi has become one of the richest personalities in Italy, and even on the planet, thanks to this flourishing business, the one nicknamed the Cavaliere has not forgotten his (great) political ambitions. .
A tenor of Italian politics
In the early 1990s, he founded the center-right movement Forza Italia, and quickly won the parliamentary elections in 1994, allowing him to first become a deputy, then a month later, head of the Italian government. . An experience he would repeat several times over the next 20 years. Silvio Berlusconi will thus find himself at the head of the Council from 2001 until 2006, then from May 2008 until the end of 2011.
And while his political life was in real decline after a 2010 decade marked by several electoral failures and various health problems, the businessman resurfaced in 2022 and regained his seat as senator in the constituency of Lombardy. At 86, Silvio Berlusconi finds the upper house nine years later and even tries to conquer the presidency of the Senate. Without success. At the same time, the tenor of transalpine politics is leading his party to the parliamentary elections of 2022, won by the right-wing coalition. However, disagreements quickly appeared with Giorgia Meloni, the new President of the Council, on the subject of the war in Ukraine, Silvio Berlusconi maintaining privileged ties with Vladimir Putin.
A life marked by business
But beyond the formidable businessman, experienced in political combat, Silvio Berlusconi builds his character according to the countless legal proceedings to which he is subject. Twenty in total for tax evasion, corruption or even illicit financing of political parties. The Milanese will forever be associated with the “Rubygate” scandal for which he was finally acquitted in 2014 after a first instance sentence of seven years in prison. A case in which the Cavaliere was suspected of having paid a young girl, then a minor, for sex with her. Allegations confirmed by the person concerned, a Moroccan oriental dancer named Karima El Malhroug, also known by the stage name “Ruby Rubacuori”. In this case, Silvio Berlusconi was even accused of having set up a real prostitution network from which he took advantage during “bunga bunga” evenings during which these young women had to provide various services to the businessman, in the basement of his villa, converted into a nightclub.
For more than two decades, Berlusconi multiplies the back and forth in the courts but the overwhelming majority of cases in which he is involved end in dismissals, acquittals or dismissals. Except for the one concerning Mediaset, the television group he headed. Sentenced to four years in prison, he was accused of having artificially inflated the price of the broadcasting rights of certain programs, acquired via screen companies of which he was the head, when reselling them to Mediaset. A way for the group to reduce its profits in Italy and thus reduce its tax burden on the other side of the Alps.
A name eternally associated with AC Milan
A course punctuated by legal setbacks which does not prevent the Cavaliere from managing his business, especially in the world of football. In 1986, he bought the mythical AC Milan, then in the grip of significant financial difficulties. During three decades of presidency, Silvio Berlusconi made the Lombard club a stronghold of European football. A sporting success, symbolized by the five Champions Leagues won in 1989, 1990, 1994, 2003 and 2007, and which he will use to serve his political career.
During his last years of life, Silvio Berlusconi had to deal with declining health. Open-heart surgery in 2016, he underwent several hospitalizations linked to Covid-19 in 2020 as well as “periodic clinical examinations” on the eve of the 2022 presidential election. On Wednesday April 5, he was admitted to intensive care in Milan in a cardiac surgery unit. Silvio Berlusconi left San Raffaele Hospital on May 19 after spending 45 days there. Treated for leukemia, he was hospitalized earlier this month in Milan for planned checks, his doctors said.