Fiery, effervescent and billionaire, four-time Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was a media mogul and political showman whose financial and sex scandals made him the most polarizing figure in modern Italy.
He died this Monday (12) at the age of 86, according to his press office.
With unassailable self-confidence and a strong entrepreneurial spirit, Berlusconi created a business empire that, at its peak, stretched from construction to television, publishing, retail and top-flight football.
He used his wealth and media prowess to launch himself into politics in 1994, toppling traditional parties in a way that another real estate mogul, Donald Trump, later did when he was elected president of the United States in 2016.
Many Berlusconi critics say he used his power mainly to protect his own business interests, pointing to Italy’s poor economic record, stubborn bureaucracy and rampant corruption during his long periods in government.
He himself said that he only entered politics to stop the left.
“Politics has never been my passion. It made me waste a lot of time and energy. If I entered the ring, it was only to prevent the communists from taking power,” he told Chi magazine in an interview to mark his 80th birthday in 2016.
gaffes and scandals
Voters have repeatedly believed in his exuberance, and Berlusconi has survived a series of diplomatic gaffes and scandals, including allegations that he had sex with an underage girl and organized wild orgies.
But he was impacted by the scale of Europe’s financial crisis in 2011 and had to step down as prime minister.
Further defeat followed in the form of a 2013 conviction for tax fraud, a verdict that meant he was temporarily barred from parliament and stripped of his cherished title, Il Cavaliere, or the Knight – a state decoration.
Under financial pressure, he sold his beloved football team AC Milan, whose on-field success has already reflected his political triumphs, while his efforts to transform his media group into a pan-European broadcasting behemoth never got off the ground.
Defying the tide of time, Berlusconi campaigned ahead of the 2022 national election, but his famous glow had faded and his once-predominant Forza Italia (Go, Italy!) low of all time.
However, it was enough to secure a return to government as a junior partner in a right-wing coalition, with Berlusconi himself winning a Senate seat, ending his parliamentary exile.
As with his political party, as with his business empire, Berlusconi left no heir apparent. Under Italian law, all five of his children will receive a share of his estate, while Forza Italia can struggle to survive without him at the helm.
topless game show
Berlusconi was born into a modest family in northern Italy in 1936. After stints as a cruise ship singer, he made his first fortune in real estate in Milan in the 1960s and 1970s. mafia to sustain these initial investments.
Having built apartments, Berlusconi provided tenants with their own television channel. That company quickly grew into a de facto national network that eventually broke the state monopoly, introducing Roman Catholic Italy to the delights of topless game shows and low-cost American soap operas.
Stifled by Italy’s bureaucracy, it was nearly impossible to get ahead without political patronage, and when Berlusconi’s main protector, Socialist Party leader Bettino Craxi, fled abroad to escape corruption charges, the tycoon decided to enter politics himself, baptizing his party named after a football anthem.
With the old political class swept away by accusations of bribery, Italians swallowed Berlusconi’s smiling assurances that he knew how to fix the country and, within months, elected him prime minister.
His rule lasted just half a year, with the coalition falling apart after news broke that he had been investigated for corruption linked to his business interests.
Legal troubles dogged Berlusconi throughout his political career and he was convicted in at least seven cases of serious charges, including bribing a senator and bribing judges.
Those convictions were eventually overturned on appeal or swept out of court under a statute of limitations that gives magistrates a set amount of time to complete their cases — time that a Berlusconi administration has drastically reduced.
Berlusconi said he was the victim of left-led judicial persecution and that the electorate sided with him, restoring him to power in the 2001 election. Rejected in 2006, he returned in 2008, using his charm and negotiation skills to weave frequent arguments. centre-right coalitions.
On the international stage, he has cultivated a particularly close bond with Russian President Vladimir Putin – a friendship he has defended even after Russia’s victory in 2022.
Berlusconi’s relations with European partners were often rocky, particularly during the 2011 sovereign debt crisis when he was seen as a vulnerability. A biography, “My Way,” written by Alan Friedman, said relations got so bad that then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy refused to shake his hand.
Bunga Bunga
At the same time, Berlusconi’s sex life was being covered in the world’s press, including shocking details of his notorious “bunga bunga” parties.
Magistrates say he paid thousands of euros for sex with Moroccan-born nightclub dancer Karima El Mahroug, known as “Ruby the Heart Stealer”, when she was underage.
He denied this, but admitted to having freed her from a police station, saying she was the niece of then Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. A court finally acquitted him of having sex with a young woman, saying he shouldn’t have known she was under 18.
Although Berlusconi downplayed his reputation as a philanderer, his second wife, Veronica Lario, did not and she filed for divorce, saying she could not live with a man who “frequented minors”.
Initially, she received one of the highest divorce payments in Italian history – 1.4 million euros (R$ 7.36 million) a month in child support. But, like many court decisions against him, Berlusconi appealed and the amount was later reduced to zero.
The many scandals took their toll, and in 2011 he resigned as prime minister as Italy approached a Greek-style debt crisis. A jeering crowd cheered as his entourage made its way to the president’s office to hand in his resignation.
However, as the years passed, his damaged image regained some of its former luster and he was increasingly seen as an elder statesman who exerted a moderating influence on the more extreme forces in his conservative camp.
When he was hospitalized in September 2020 with severe Covid-19, he received numerous messages of good recovery from all quarters, marking his rehabilitation in Italian society.
He never remarried, but in 2022 he had a “symbolic” wedding with his partner Marta Fascina, 53 years his junior, who wore a white wedding dress to the unofficial ceremony.
Berlusconi was one of the most extraordinary characters on Italy’s often bizarre political scene, a flamboyant figure whose lewd jokes alone would have killed a political career in most EU countries.
After Barack Obama was elected the first African-American president of the United States, Berlusconi congratulated him on being “tall, handsome and tanned”.
But his often comic personality and repeated plastic surgery hid a keen political mind and an almost extraordinary talent for exploring the fears and concerns of ordinary Italians.
Berlusconi himself did not regret his political career, although he clearly felt that he was often betrayed.
“All I know is that in both foreign and domestic policy, I have never made a single mistake,” he told Chi magazine in 2016. “But when I think about it, I can’t remember the name of a single friend in politics. .”
(Edited by Mark Heinrich, Andrew Heavens and Angus MacSwan)
Source: CNN Brasil
Bruce Belcher is a seasoned author with over 5 years of experience in world news. He writes for online news websites and provides in-depth analysis on the world stock market. Bruce is known for his insightful perspectives and commitment to keeping the public informed.
