He sold vacuum cleaners, entertained cruise ships and ended his days as the longest-serving prime minister since the founding of the republic. He will have left the heirs a fortune worth seven billion euros. To the Italians, Silvio Berlusconi left a radically transformed media, political and sporting landscape as he waged a long and almost always successful battle with justice.
The magnate, founder and leader of the center-right party Forza Italia died at the age of 86 in his hometown of Milan. The cause of death has not been disclosed, but he was hospitalized last week for medical examinations related to the leukemia he suffered from. Vladimir Putin will not be able to attend the state funeral, scheduled for tomorrow at Milan Cathedral. The Russian leader who, in the words of the Italian, said to be the first of the five greatest friends, has had an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for war crimes.
“For me, Silvio was a true friend and a dear man,” Putin said in a message of condolence addressed to Italian President Sergio Mattarella, quoted by the TASS agency. “I have always truly admired his wisdom and his ability to make balanced and progressive decisions, even in the most difficult situations. During each of our meetings, I was literally infected by his incredible vitality, optimism and sense of humour,” he recalls himself. . “His death is an irreparable loss and a great misfortune,” concluded the Russian president who took Berlusconi on a visit to annexed Crimea in 2015.
It is the Ukrainian president who will only send a message of condolence outside of protocol. Volodymyr Zelensky was accused by Berlusconi of being responsible for the “slaughter of civilians and soldiers” and of having been responsible for the Russian invasion, which, he said, “would install a government already elected by the Ukrainian minority of good and sensible people”. .
His stance on Russia – which reflected an important part of public opinion: a quarter of Italians consider Moscow an ally or partner, according to a recent ECFR survey – led to a moment of tension with Giorgia Meloni, his former youth minister and current Prime Minister of the coalition government.
Vladimir Putin was devastated by the death of his ‘real’ friend. “His death is an irreparable loss and a great misfortune,” he said.
Days before the formation of the executive, the tone was already set. When he lost the chance to be elected President of the Senate, he classified Meloni as “authoritarian, domineering, arrogant and abusive” in a written note caught by the cameras. At the time of his death, Meloni praised the “fighter” in his ally: “He was a man who was not afraid to defend his convictions, and it was this very courage and determination that made him one of the most influential men in history.” from Italy.
The son of bank clerk Luigi and Rosa Bossi Berlusconi, who switched from secretary to housework after marriage, Silvio was born in September 1936, the eldest of three brothers in a middle-class family. The story goes that he soon showed aptitude for the company, doing the work of other students in exchange for liras. While studying law at the University of Milan, he sold vacuum cleaners door-to-door and sang in a band that livened up tourist resorts and cruise ships. At the age of 27, he founded a construction company.
What does the Corriere della Sera, it is thanks to Banca Rasini, where his father Berlusconi became a manager of an agency, that Silvio receives financing for real estate projects in the suburbs of Milan and that initiate his career as an entrepreneur. In the 1990s it became known that among the first investors were Swiss companies that wished to remain anonymous.
In the mid-1970s, the Constitutional Court decided that the television service did not have to be exclusively public. While receiving the honorary title of Knight from President Giovanni Leone, he will be known as The Cavaliers – enters the television market. First by taking over local TV stations, then by creating a de facto network while circumventing the law by showing the same programs on all channels at almost the same time.
With Craxi’s blessing
With the arrival of socialist Bettino Craxi as head of government in 1983, Berlusconi entered politics in the shadows and they nurtured a friendship that was sealed in 1990, when Craxi witnessed the businessman’s second wedding (to Veronica Lario) and a of the couple’s children. During the socialist government, it acquired two national channels and invested heavily in buying the rights to broadcast North American series and movies such as Dallas, Dynasty Or the wheel of luck.
For its part, the national production was characterized by programs aimed at housewives and the first experiences of reality TVif thick colpusa match with striptease. A revolution in an environment where entertainment was the exception. And in command was a man who personified success, wealth and boundless self-confidence (one of his mottos was “Always carry the sun in your pocket”).
From TV stations, Berlusconi diversified into means of communication, buying radio stations, newspapers and magazines and turning to other businesses: under the umbrella of Fininvest, he entered the world of advertising, film production, trading with chain stores and football, acquiring AC Milan in 1986 .
Until the sale, in 2017, for 740 million euros, the main team won 28 trophies – five of them European champions – leaving a team in history coached by Arrigo Sacchi with some of the best Italian and Dutch players. With the AC Milan chapter over, Berlusconi acquired AC Monza, a club he took from the secondary divisions to the first.
In 1992, prosecutors launched the Mãos Limpas investigation, which revealed a widespread culture of corruption. Prosecutors alleged that Craxi, who left power in 1987, received millions in Swiss bank accounts from Fininvest, among other revelations that shook the foundations of parties and the credibility of politicians.
With links that wanted to end his company’s monopoly and with investigations into his companies and possible connections to the mafia, Berlusconi understood what he had to do. “If I don’t go into politics, they’ll tear me to pieces,” he told Indro Montanelli, director of his newspaper. Il Giornale – and the only one in the realm of average which refused orders for a coordinated communications campaign to accompany Forza Italia’s election campaign, which promised tax cuts and privatizations.
Elected Prime Minister, the government fell after seven months, despite calling herself Italy’s “best Prime Minister ever”. But he won two other elections (2001 and 2008), after a total of nine years in office. A period when he never saw any conflict of interest in servicing almost all media, nor in making laws in favor of himself or his friends (for example, a decree banned imprisonment for political corruption and fraud).
In his second experience of power, he developed relationships with authoritarians like Muammar Gaddafi or the aforementioned Putin, while his questionable jokes and racist or sexist diatribes made him a nuisance to the other leaders. On the third occasion, he was forced to resign, not because of the scandals in his private life – José Saramago called him a “disease” and a “virus” – nor because of suspicions of paying for sexual relations with a minor, but because of the crisis economy, despite claiming to be an expert in this field.
Two years later he was finally convicted of tax fraud, but the prison sentence was reduced to months of community service. Anyone who thought this was his end in politics was wrong, as he had been wrong time and time again. Weakened, he helped form the right-wing and far-right government, although his ambition to reach the presidency of the senate or the republic remained unfulfilled.
Source: DN
