Photo by Tiziana FABI / AFP
Milan: Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister who reshaped Italy's political and cultural landscape, has died aged 86, his spokesman confirmed to AFP Monday.
The billionaire media mogul was admitted to a Milan hospital on Friday for what aides said were pre-planned tests related to his leukemia.
His admission came just three weeks after he was discharged following a six-week stay at Milan's San Raffaele hospital, during which time doctors revealed he had a rare type of blood cancer.
Berlusconi had suffered ill health for years, from heart surgery in 2016 to a 2020 hospitalisation for coronavirus. Despite being re-elected to the Senate last year, he was rarely seen in public.
But he remained the official head of his right-wing Forza Italia party, a junior -- and occasionally troublesome -- partner in Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's coalition government.
Berlusconi led Italy three times between 1994 and 2011, for a total of nine years, wooing voters with a promise of economic success only to be forced out as a debt crisis gripped his country.
But his influence extended well beyond politics, thanks to his extensive TV, newspaper and sporting interests.
