Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi admitted that coping with leukemia is difficult, but assured that he will overcome the disease, as he has done at other times in his life.
“It’s hard, but this time I’ll overtake again. Even in difficult and delicate situations I managed to recover,” Silvio Berlusconi, who suffers from leukemia and is in intensive care, was quoted as saying by Il Giornale newspaper in its Friday edition.
The former prime minister and media mogul was on the phone with Augusto Minzolini, editor of the former Berlusconi family’s newspaper.
Berlusconi has been receiving treatment 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 mogul “rested well and is reacting well to his treatment,” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani also said on Rai 3 television.
Tajani is number two in Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, which is part of the coalition government headed by Giorgia Meloni.
Nicknamed “the immortal” for his longevity in politics and re-elected to the Senate in 2022, Silvio Berlusconi suffers from a lung infection associated with “chronic myelomonocytic leukemia that he has suffered for a long time,” according to his doctors.
Supporters of Berlusconi’s Monza football club hung a banner on the hospital gates: “Cheer up, Silvio! Monza is with you.”
Former prime minister and senator Matteo Renzi (center), Berlusconi’s longtime political rival, posted a message of support on Twitter this morning: “Cheer up, Silvio! We’ll be waiting for you smiling in the Senate.”
Berlusconi, one of the richest men on the peninsula with a fortune estimated by Forbes at 6.4 billion euros, has been in and out of hospital in recent years.
Last month, the billionaire spent four days in the same hospital and was released a week ago.
Silvio Berlusconi entered politics in 1994 and was Prime Minister for a total of nine years. Despite a series of sex scandals and court cases that tarnished his image, he has retained a special place in the hearts of many Italians.
Source: TSF
