A source close to the situation said on Thursday that Four-times Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been diagnosed with cancer, a day after he was taken to critical care with respiratory difficulties.
The 86-year-old, whose media business has made him a millionaire, is being treated in Milan’s San Raffaele Hospital’s heart section.
There has been no formal statement on his health, but a story in the Corriere della Sera daily verified the source’s prognosis of leukaemia, a disease of the blood cells.
Ansa, an Italian news service, claimed that Berlusconi had started chemotherapy, with the first procedure taking place at the hospital on Wednesday. According to the story, he was still in satisfactory condition on Thursday.
Marina and Luigi Berlusconi, two of Berlusconi’s children, appeared at the hospital on Thursday but did not talk to the press and camera teams waiting outside.
The former Italy PM Forza Italia party is a member of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing alliance, but the previous prime minister plays no role in government.
“I spoke with Professor (Alberto) Zangrillo (Berlusconi’s personal doctor) this morning, and he told me that Berlusconi spent a quiet night, and his condition is stable,” Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani said on RAI state television.
Tajani, a long-time Berlusconi supporter within Forza Italia, pointed out that Berlusconi had overcome a number of health issues.
“We all want to be optimistic, and we hope that the lion will soon return to lead the party.” “He’s our political leader, and he never gives up,” Tajani said to the network.
Following that, the party issued a statement saying Berlusconi had spoken to top Forza Italia supporters in the morning and encouraged “maximum commitment” in parliament. He was reported as stating, “The country needs us.”
PERMANENT INFLUENCE
The former Italy PM, who earned his wealth in commercial television, has had several episodes of illness in recent years and was just released from the same hospital last week after being treated for a few days.
“There is obviously concern… (He) is alert but not in a position to deal with every situation,” Paolo Barelli, the lower house head of Forza Italia, told Italian radio.
The former Italy PM resigned as prime minister for the final time in 2011, burdened by corruption and controversy, including his infamous “bunga bunga” parties, as Italy faced a Greek-style financial crisis.
However, he was re-elected to the Italian Senate in September following a national election, and there is no clear replacement as head of his party.
Berlusconi’s Fininvest family holding company maintains control of the MediaForEurope (MFEB.MI) transmission firm, in addition to his lasting power in Italian politics. His son, Pier Silvio Berlusconi, is the company’s CEO.
Before joining politics in 1994, when the previous political elite was taken down by a corruption controversy, Berlusconi created Italy’s largest commercial TV network and earned a worldwide reputation as the proprietor of European football winners AC Milan.
In recent years, his health has worsened. He had cardiac surgery in 2016, and prostate cancer, and has been hospitalised several times since acquiring COVID-19 in 2020.
