2023-06-12 08:41:00
The man the Italians nicknamed “il Cavaliere” died at 86. Businessman and central figure in Italian political life, he also left his mark on La Botte with his many escapades and legal affairs.
The disappearance of an emblematic figure of Italian political life. Silvio Berlusconi, Italian senator and former prime minister three times, has died at the age of 86. His death marks the end of a thirty-year political career. Thirty years of back and forth at the head of the Italian executive, of controversial outings, controversies and legal cases.
A life of countless escapades for this man of power, initially a businessman whose wealth is now estimated at several billion euros. The one who was born in Milan in the middle of Fascist Italy was passionate regarding music, art and antiquity when he was younger. His professional career began in the real estate market in the 1960s.
Media man, then politician
Over the following decades, he founded a multitude of companies in different sectors, including media, construction, finance and insurance. A success that allowed him to be made a Knight of the Order of Labor Merit in 1977 and to be then nicknamed Il Cavaliere. His Mediaset company, mainly owned by the Fininvest holding company, which includes most Italian television channels, earned him a large part of his fortune and was also a springboard for his political career.
This began in the mid-1990s with the creation of the Forza Italia party in the followingmath of Operation Clean Hands, which aimed to put an end to the widespread corruption that had affected Italian political life for a long time. He then wanted to run for the presidency of the Council of Ministers, which was done in 1994, 2001 and 2008. During his three terms of office, he aimed to modernize the Italian economy and to fight once morest corruption and organized crime.
Several cases, one final conviction
But his multiple mandates are marred by scandals. Accused of corruption, tax evasion, bribery of witnesses or paid sex with minors… These cases tarnish the reputation of the Italian politician and arouse massive protests from public opinion.
Prosecuted several times, he managed to avoid prison thanks to laws that he himself passed, until 2013. He was then condemned for the first time definitively for a case of tax evasion which earned him the loss of his Cavaliere title.
Less present on the political and media scene in recent years, he had supported the candidacy of Giorgia Meloni, president of the Brothers of Italy and figure of the Italian far right, for the presidency of the Council of Ministers. The former Cavaliere, still a senator, must nevertheless reduce his political involvement due to health problems. In 2020, he contracted Covid-19, “the worst experience of his life” and then multiplied the long passages in the hospital until the end of his life.
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