Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian Prime Minister and media mogul, has died aged 86, according to Italian media reports. Local press said Berlusconi died at the San Raffaele hospital in Milan. He had been in poor health and, in April, was treated for a lung infection linked to a previously undisclosed case of chronic leukaemia.
Berlusconi was a highly controversial former Italian Prime Minister and media mogul who was a giant of Italian politics and the longest-serving in the post since World War Two.
He served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 2011 and had recently been returned to the Senate of the Republic in the Giorgia Meloni government, leading the centre-right Forza Italia Party. Given his domineering political position, his death could lead to a destabilization of Italian politics in the coming months.
Along with A.C. Milan football club, the media tycoon was the owner of one of Italy’s largest media outfits, Mediaset, which he continued to own during his time in power – a source of much controversy. He sold A.C. Milan six years ago to a Chinese firm but was a controlling Mediaset shareholder upon his death.
His ownership of Mediaset was riddled with scandal. A long-running tax fraud trial related to Mediaset saw him convicted of tax fraud a decade ago and banned from holding office for two years, although his four-year prison sentence was eventually exempt due to his being over the age of 70.
The Milan-born billionaire’s career was also riddled with other sex scandals and corruption allegations. . Amongst other accusations, Berlusconi was also accused and initially formally convicted of paying 17-year-old Moroccan Karima El Mahroug, also known by the stage name Ruby Rubacuori, for sexual services between February and May 2010 when she was under the age of 18. He was eventually found not guilty on appeal but the trial hung over him for years.
