Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi admitted that it is difficult to face leukemia, but assured that he will overcome the disease, as he has done at other times in his life.
“It’s tough, but this time I will catch up again. Even in difficult and delicate situations I managed to recover”said Silvio Berlusconi, who has leukemia and is in intensive care, quoted by the daily Il Giornale in the Friday edition.
The former prime minister and media magnate was on the phone with Augusto Minzolini, editor of the former Berlusconi family newspaper.
Berlusconi has been treated in the intensive care unit of Milan’s San Raffaele Hospital since Wednesday for chronic leukemia and a lung infection.
The 86-year-old media magnate “rested well and is responding well to his treatment,” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told Rai 3.
Tajani is the runner-up of Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, which is part of the coalition government led by Giorgia Meloni.
Silvio Berlusconi, nicknamed “the Immortal” for his longevity in politics and re-elected to the Senate in 2022, is suffering from a lung infection related to “chronic myelomonocytic leukemia from which he has been suffering for some time,” according to his doctors.
Supporters of Berlusconi’s football club Monza hung a banner at the gates of the hospital: “Courage Silvio! Monza is with you”.
Former Prime Minister and Senator Matteo Renzi (center), Berlusconi’s old political rival, published a statement of support on Twitter this Friday morning: “Courage Silvio! We are waiting for you smiling in the Senate”.
Berlusconi, one of the peninsula’s richest men with a fortune estimated by Forbes at $6.4 billion, has been in and out of hospital in recent years.
Last month, the billionaire spent four days in the same hospital and was discharged a week ago.
Silvio Berlusconi entered politics in 1994 and was prime minister for a total of nine years. Despite a series of sexual scandals and lawsuits that tarnished his image, he has held a special place in the hearts of many Italians.
Source: DN
