Berlusconi family

Early life

Berlusconi was born in 1936 in Milan, where he was raised in a middle-class family. His father, Luigi Berlusconi, was a bank employee, and his mother, Rosa Bossi, a housewife. He was the first of three children; he had a sister, Maria Francesca Antonietta, and a brother, Paolo.

After completing his secondary school education at a Salesian college, Berlusconi studied law at the University of Milan, graduating with honours in 1961, with a thesis on the legal aspects of advertising. He was not required to serve the standard one-year stint in the Italian army which was compulsory at the time. During his university studies, he played upright bass in a group formed with the now Mediaset Chairman and amateur pianist Fedele Confalonieri and occasionally performed as a cruise ship crooner. In later life, he wrote AC Milan's anthem with the Italian music producer and pop singer Tony Renis and Forza Italia's anthem with the opera director Renato Serio. With the Neapolitan singer Mariano Apicella, he wrote two Neapolitan song albums: Meglio 'na canzone in 2003 and L'ultimo amore in 2006. In 1965, Berlusconi married Carla Elvira Dall'Oglio, and they had two children: Maria Elvira, better known as Marina (born 1966), and Pier Silvio (born 1969). By 1980, Berlusconi had established a relationship with the actress Veronica Lario (born Miriam Bartolini), with whom he subsequently had three children: Barbara (born 1984), Eleonora (born 1986), and Luigi (born 1988). He was divorced from Dall'Oglio in 1985, and married Lario in 1990. By this time, Berlusconi was a well-known entrepreneur, and his wedding was a notable social event. One of his best men was Bettino Craxi, a former prime minister and leader of the Italian Socialist Party. In May 2009, Lario announced that she was to file for divorce. On 28 December 2012, Berlusconi was ordered to pay Lario $48 million a year in a divorce settlement, but could keep the $100 million house they lived in with their three children.

The fortune

In 2012, Forbes magazine reported that Berlusconi was Italy's sixth-richest man, with a net worth of $5.9 billion. He held significant assets in television, newspapers, publishing, cinema, finance, banking, insurance, and sports. However, in the summer of 2023, the Italian media estimated Berlusconi's legacy at only 4 billion euros. Berlusconi's main company, Mediaset, operates three national television channels, which in total cover half of the national television sector; and Publitalia , the leading Italian advertising and publicity agency. Berlusconi also owned a controlling stake in Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, the largest Italian publishing house. His brother, Paolo Berlusconi, owns and operates il Giornale, a centre-right newspaper that provides a pro-Berlusconi slant on Italian politics. Il Foglio, one of the most influential Italian right-wing newspapers, is partially owned by his former wife, Veronica Lario. After Lario sold some of her ownership in 2010, Paolo Berlusconi acquired a majority interest in the newspaper. Silvio Berlusconi founded and was the major shareholder of Fininvest, which is among the largest private companies in Italy. With Ennio Doris he founded Mediolanum, one of the country's biggest banking and insurance groups. He had interests in cinema and home video distribution (Medusa Film and Penta Film). He also owned the football club AC Milan from 1986 to 2017, and owned AC Monza since 2018. According to his will, Berlusconi bequeathed controlling shares of Fininvest to his two sons and three daughters, a sum of 100 million euros from his personal wealth to his domestic partner, Marta Fascina, another 100 million euros to his brother Paolo Berlusconi and 30 million euros to his longstanding associate, Marcello Dell'Utri.

Personal life

Having been hospitalised again on 9 June 2023, Berlusconi died on the morning of 12 June, at San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, aged 86. Italy's Council of Ministers declared a day of national mourning on the day of the funeral, also ordering that flags be flown half mast for three days; this was met with protests and polemics by some members of the centre-left coalition, as well as some jurists and political scientists. A few hours after his death, Berlusconi's body was brought to Villa San Martino, Berlusconi's mansion in Arcore, where he lay in state in the villa's private chapel. Due to security reasons, only relatives and close friends could access the chapelle ardente. The following day, a Private Mass in memory of the deceased was celebrated in the chapel by Father Giandomenico Colombo, a priest in charge of Arcore, at the presence of relatives and close friends. Berlusconi's state funeral was officiated in the Ambrosian Rite on 14 June in the Milan Cathedral by Mario Delpini, the Archbishop of Milan. Mons. Delpini delivered a homily on the meaning of life, mentioning some elements of Berlusconi's life (business, public life, politics), concluding that, "That's what we can say about Silvio Berlusconi: he was a man and now he will meet God." The homily caused controversy and different interpretations: it was described as "icy" by Il Fatto Quotidiano, while instead the Corriere della Sera described it as "a perfect portrait, devoid of any hypocrisy", noting that it was deeply appreciated by Berlusconi's family, while Il Foglio called it "a great homily". Il Messaggero remarked that the homily was inspired by the theology of Father Luigi Giussani, founder of Communion and Liberation. The funeral was attended by 2,300 people in the Cathedral and 15,000 people in the square outside of it. Supporters of Berlusconi chanted C'è solo un presidente! ('There is only one president!') and applauded while the coffin was entering and then leaving the Cathedral. Anti-communist chants were also reported. Following the religious function, Berlusconi's body was transferred back to Villa San Martino; then, he was transferred to the Tempio Crematorio Valenziano Panta Rei in Alessandria, where his body was cremated. His ashes were buried in the Chapel of Saint Martin in the mansion, next to the tomb of his parents Luigi and Rosa, and his sister Maria Antonietta.

Career

Berlusconi rapidly rose to the forefront of Italian politics in January 1994, forming a new party called Forza Italia. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the first time and appointed as prime minister following the 1994 Italian general election, when Forza Italia gained a majority in the Chamber of Deputies less than three months after having been launched. His cabinet collapsed after nine months due to internal disagreements among the coalition parties, and he was succeeded as prime minister by Lamberto Dini. In the 1996 Italian general election, Berlusconi was defeated by the centre-left candidate Romano Prodi. In the 2001 Italian general election, he was again the centre-right candidate for prime minister and won against the centre-left candidate Francesco Rutelli. Berlusconi then formed his second and third cabinets, until 2006. Berlusconi was the leader of the centre-right coalition in the 2006 Italian general election, which he lost by a very narrow margin, his opponent again being Prodi. He was re-elected in the 2008 Italian general election following the collapse of the Second Prodi government and sworn in for the third time as prime minister on 8 May 2008. After losing his majority in parliament amid growing fiscal problems related to the European debt crisis, the resignation of Berlusconi as prime minister came on 16 November 2011. Berlusconi led the People of Freedom and its right-wing allies in the campaign for the 2013 Italian general election. Although he initially planned to run for a fifth term as prime minister, as part of the agreement with the Lega Nord, he would instead plan to lead the coalition without becoming prime minister. Berlusconi's centre-right coalition gained 29% of votes, ranking second, after the centre-left coalition Italy Common Good led by Pier Luigi Bersani. Subsequently, Berlusconi's allies supported the Letta Cabinet headed by Enrico Letta of the Democratic Party, together with the centrist Civic Choice of former prime minister Mario Monti. Berlusconi was criticised for his electoral coalitions with right-wing populist parties (Lega Nord and the National Alliance) and for apologetic remarks about Mussolini; he also officially apologised for Italy's actions in Libya during colonial rule. While in power, Berlusconi maintained ownership of Mediaset, the largest media company in Italy, and was criticised for his dominance of the Italian media. His leadership was also undermined by sex scandals.

More, Thomas. Silvio Berlusconi (unauthorised translation by Luigi Firpo) (ed.). L'Utopia. Berlusconi, Silvio (2001). Una storia italiana. Mondadori. Pllumi, Zef (2013). Il sangue di Abele. Vivi per testimoniare (preface by Silvio Berlusconi). Diana edizioni.

Sanctions & controversy

Berlusconi was involved in many controversies and over 20 court cases during his political career, including being sentenced to four years' imprisonment and a five-year ban from public office by the Court of Appeals for €7M tax evasion (and €280M slush fund) on 8 May 2013, confirmed by the Court of Cassation on 1 August 2013. Due to a general pardon, his imprisonment was reduced to one year, which due to his age could be served either as a house arrest or as community service. On 24 June 2013, Berlusconi was found guilty of paying an underage prostitute for sex, and of abusing his powers in an ensuing cover up. He was sentenced to seven years in jail, and banned from public office for life. He was acquitted from the sex charges by the Italy appeals court on Friday, 18 July 2014.

In December 2007, the audio recording of a phone call between Berlusconi, then leader of the opposition, and Agostino Saccà (general director of RAI) was published by the magazine L'Espresso and caused a scandal in the media. The wiretap was part of an investigation by the Public Prosecutor Office of Naples, where Berlusconi was investigated for corruption. In the phone call, Saccà expresses words of impassioned political support to Berlusconi and criticises the behaviour of Berlusconi's allies. Berlusconi urges Saccà to broadcast a telefilm series which was strongly advocated by his ally Umberto Bossi. Saccà laments that many people have spread rumours about this agreement causing problems for him. Then Berlusconi asks Saccà to find a job in RAI for a young woman explicitly telling him that this woman would serve as an asset in a secret exchange with a senator of the majority who would help him to cause Prodi, with his administration, to fall. After the publication of these wiretaps, Berlusconi was accused by other politicians and by some journalists of political corruption through the exploitation of prostitution. In his own defence, Berlusconi said: "In the entertainment world everybody knows that, in certain situations in RAI TV you work only if you prostitute yourself or if you are leftist. I have intervened on behalf of some personalities who are not leftists and have been completely set apart by RAI TV." In the State Department's 2011 Trafficking in Persons report authorised by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Berlusconi was explicitly named as a person involved in the "commercial sexual exploitation of a Moroccan child".

At the end of April 2009, Berlusconi's wife Veronica Lario, who would divorce him several years later, wrote an open letter expressing her anger at Berlusconi's choice of young, attractive female candidates—some with little or no political experience—to represent the party in the 2009 European Parliament elections. Berlusconi demanded a public apology, claiming that for the third time, his wife had "done this to me in the middle of an election campaign", and stated that there was little prospect of his marriage continuing. On 3 May, Lario