Former Italian prime minister and senator Silvio Berlusconi passed away this morning at San Raffaele Hospital in Milan at the age of 86.
His brother Paolo and children Eleonora, Barbara, Marina and Pier Silvio arrived earlier in the day at the Lombard health center where the former prime minister and leader of Forza Italia had been admitted last Friday to undergo “scheduled examinations” related to his chronic myelomonocytic leukemia.
Born in Milan in 1936, businessman and politician Silvio Berlusconi has marked the world of information and Italian politics over the last 40 years. In 1978 he founded Fininvest (from 1993 renamed Mediaset), the commercial TV of Italy; in 1990 he acquired the majority of Mondadori, becoming the main Italian publisher in the sector of books and periodicals; in 1993 he made his debut in politics, gave birth to the Forza Italia party and became Prime Minister four times over the years (the longest mandate was the second, in which his government remained in office from June 2001 to May 2006).
