Silvio Berlusconi, the billionaire media-mogul-turned politician who defined a three-decade-long era in postwar Italy during which TV spin, tainting allegations of corruption and sex scandals were …
, the billionaire media-mogul-turned politician who defined a three-decade-long era in postwar Italy during which TV spin, tainting allegations of corruption and sex scandals were pervasive — but who also achieved unprecedented political stability in the country — has died. He was 86.
Telemilano grew into Mediaset, Italy’s largest commercial broadcaster. Berlusconi’s holding company Fininvest also subsequently acquired daily newspaper Il Giornale, the AC Milan football club, film company Medusa, and Mondadori, Italy’s top publisher. His first government collapsed just seven months later, when the Northern League pulled out. But by 2001 Berlusconi was back in power with the same coalition partners, at the head of what became Italy’s longest-serving postwar government until 2006, when he was defeated. He returned as premier as leader of the renamed PDL party in 2008 but was forced to resign in 2011, at the height of the Eurozone debt crisis, after he lost his parliamentary majority.
Berlusconi was acquitted numerous times, had convictions overturned or saw them expire under the statute of limitations, becoming known as the “Teflon Don.” In August 2013 his final appeal was turned down by Italy’s highest court, which reduced the prison sentence to house arrest or community service due to Berlusconi’s age.
Alongside Berlusconi’s political and legal vicissitudes, there were always reports in the Italian press about his plastic surgeries and private life. These culminated in his conviction in 2013 for paying for sex with an under-age prostitute, 17-year-old Karima “Ruby” El Mahroug, who had attended one of what later became his world famous “bunga bunga” parties. However, in July 2014, an appeals court overturned Berlusconi’s conviction in this infamous case.
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