Pope Francis highlighted the “energetic temperament” of Silvio Berlusconi in a message of condolences sent to the family of the former Italian prime minister, who died Monday in Milan at the age of 86.
For Francis, Berlusconi was a “protagonist of Italian political life who assumed public responsibilities with an energetic temperament,” according to a Vatican statement cited by the French agency AFP.
The Pope “invokes for him the eternal peace of the Lord and the consolation of his heart for those who mourn his departure,” Francis wrote in a telegram sent to Berlusconi’s eldest daughter, Marina.
Francis, also 86, is currently convalescing at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome, where he underwent surgery for an abdominal hernia last week.
Berlusconi died in the morning at the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, where he was born, a victim of leukemia.
The right-wing politician, media mogul and former owner of the AC Milan soccer club led Italy’s government for nine years, from 1994-1995, 2001-2006 and 2008-2011.
A controversial but inescapable figure in Italian public life in recent decades, Berlusconi has been the target of corruption allegations and at the center of sex scandals that culminated in his ouster from the Italian Senate in 2013.
In 2022, he returned to the Italian political spotlight as leader of the party he founded, Forza Italia, for which he was re-elected to the Senate.
Forza Italia is part of the right-wing and far-right governing coalition currently in power, headed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Berlusconi was also an MEP between 1999 and 2001, and between 2019 and 2022, having been a member of the foreign affairs committee and the delegation of the European Union-Russia cooperation committee, according to the European Parliament website.
The Italian politician and billionaire maintained good personal relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has already mourned the death of “a true friend.”
Source: TSF
