Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who served as PM in four governments and overcame sex scandals and accusations of corruption, passed away at the age of 86.
Italian media said that he passed away in the San Raffaele hospital in Milan.
He had treatment in April for a lung infection connected to an unreported diagnosis of persistent leukaemia.
Until 2011, Berlusconi, a flamboyant billionaire media magnate, presided over four governments (1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011).
After the September elections, when he was elected to Italy’s upper house, the Senate, he served as the leader of the center-right Forza Italia party, which formed a coalition government with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1994 to 2013; a member of the Senate of the Republic from 2022 to 2023, and previously from March to November 2013; and a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2019 to 2023, and previously from 1999 to 2001.