Silvio Berlusconi (1936 - 2023) was an Italian entrepreneur, media proprietor and politician who served three terms as prime minister of Italy, the longest tenure of any holder of the office since the Second World War. [1] He built the private broadcasting group Mediaset, owned AC Milan for three decades, and founded the party Forza Italia in 1994, dominating Italian public life for a generation while facing repeated legal proceedings. [2]
Early life and business career
Berlusconi was born in Milan on 29 September 1936, the son of a bank employee. He graduated in law from the University of Milan in 1961. [1]
He entered property development in the 1960s, and his firm built the large residential estates of Milano Due and Milano Tre on the edge of Milan. In 1977 he was made a Cavaliere del Lavoro, the Italian order of merit for labour, and the title il Cavaliere stayed with him for the rest of his life. [2]
Television and Mediaset
A cable service created for Milano Due grew into the commercial station Telemilano and then, through a network of local broadcasters transmitting identical pre-recorded schedules, into a national operation that circumvented the state broadcaster's legal monopoly. [3]
By the mid-1980s his holding company Fininvest controlled three national networks — Canale 5, Italia 1 and Rete 4 — later grouped under Mediaset. The group's entertainment-led programming reshaped Italian television and made him one of the country's wealthiest men. In 1986 he bought the football club AC Milan, which under his ownership won a long series of Italian and European titles before he sold it in 2017. [1]
Political career
The corruption investigations known as Mani Pulite destroyed Italy's established parties in the early 1990s. In January 1994 Berlusconi announced that he was entering politics and founded Forza Italia, taking its name from a football chant. Within months the party won the general election and he became prime minister, though the coalition collapsed before the end of the year. [2]
He returned to office in 2001 and governed until 2006, then again from 2008 to 2011. His programmes emphasised tax reduction, deregulation and public works, and his governments aligned Italy closely with the United States. Critics at home and abroad focused on the conflict of interest created by a prime minister who also controlled the country's main private broadcaster. [1]
He resigned in November 2011 as Italian sovereign borrowing costs rose sharply during the eurozone debt crisis and his parliamentary majority disintegrated. [3]
Legal proceedings
Berlusconi was the defendant in numerous criminal cases over three decades. Most ended in acquittal, dismissal or expiry of the statute of limitations. In 2013 he received a definitive conviction for tax fraud in connection with the purchase of television rights by Mediaset; the custodial element was converted into community service, and he was expelled from the Senate and barred from public office for a period. [1]
A separate prosecution arising from parties at his residence ended in his final acquittal on appeal. [2]
Later years and legacy
After the ban on holding office lapsed he was elected to the European Parliament in 2019 and to the Italian Senate in 2022, and Forza Italia joined the governing coalition formed that year. He died on 12 June 2023 at the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, and Italy held a state funeral. [1]
Assessments of his career remain divided. He is credited with creating Italy's commercial television industry and with reorganising the centre-right after the collapse of the old party system, and criticised for the concentration of media ownership and the record of his governments on public debt and economic growth. [2]
