Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi dies at 86

* He had been discharged from hospital last month where he was treated for over six weeks

* For a lung infection linked to chronic leukaemia and his death brings an end to one of the most colourful and controversial political careers of recent times

*With the scandal-hit prime minister famous for his notorious ‘bunga bunga’ parties

* Sex parties, which involved prostitutes and caused a major scandal in Italy

Tom Gillespie, Sky News

Berlusconi — one of the most extraordinary characters to come out of Italy’s often bizarre political landscape, with a string of scandals helping to make him a deeply divisive figure across the country — has died at the age of 86.

The senator and leader of the Forza Italia party, whose string of financial and sex scandals made him the most polarising figure in modern Italy, was admitted to hospital on Friday.

He had been discharged from hospital last month where he was treated for over six weeks for a lung infection linked to chronic leukaemia.

Berlusconi’s death brings an end to one of the most colourful and controversial political careers of recent times, with the scandal-hit prime minister famous for his notorious ‘bunga bunga’ parties — sex parties, which involved prostitutes and caused a major scandal in Italy.

Magistrates say he paid thousands of euros for sex with Moroccan-born nightclub dancer Karima El Mahroug, alias ‘Ruby the Heart Stealer’ when she was underage in 2010 — but he denied this but admitted springing her from a police station by falsely claiming she was the niece of then-Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

El Mahroug had been arrested in Milan after being accused of the theft of €3000 (£2570). A court eventually acquitted him of having sex with a youth, saying he was not to know she was under 18.

Although Berlusconi made light of his reputation as a philanderer, his second wife Veronica Lario did not and she asked for a divorce, saying she could not live with a man who “frequented minors”.

Well known for his brash and ebullient personality, Berlusconi, led Italy three times from 1994-1995, 2001-2006 and 2008-2011. He stepped down as prime minister for the last time in 2011 as Italy came close to a Greece-style debt crisis, facing several scandals.

A decade ago he was banned from holding public office over a tax fraud conviction stemming from dealings in his media empire, but the ban was lifted in 2018.

Defying the tide of time, Berlusconi campaigned ahead of a 2022 national election, but his famed sparkle had faded and his once predominant Forza Italia (Go Italy!) party, riven with divisions, took barely 8% of the vote — its lowest ever score.

However, it was enough to secure a return to government as a junior partner in a rightist coalition, with Berlusconi himself winning a senate seat, ending his parliamentary exile.

Legal woes accompanied him throughout his political career and he was convicted in at least seven cases on serious charges, including bribing a senator and paying off judges — which were eventually overturned on appeal or swept from the courts by the statute of limitations that gives magistrates a set period of time to complete their prosecutions — time that one Berlusconi administration sharply reduced.

Berlusconi was one of the most extraordinary characters to come out of Italy’s often bizarre political landscape, a flamboyant figure whose off-colour jokes alone would have killed a political career in most European Union countries.

After Barack Obama was elected the first African-American president of the United States, Berlusconi congratulated him for being “tall, handsome, and suntanned”.

Meanwhile, last year he triggered uproar with comments about Russian President Vladimir Putin hen he boasted the two had exchanged birthday greetings and blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the war.

With an unassailable self-confidence and a sharp entrepreneurial spirit, Berlusconi built Italy’s largest commercial TV network before entering politics in 1994.

The self-made billionaire, who owned the Italian football team AC Milan between 1986 and 2017, used his wealth and media prowess to enter the fray, upending traditional parties in a way that another property mogul, Donald Trump, later did when he was elected US president in 2016.

His many critics say he used his power primarily to protect his own business interests, pointing to Italy’s weak economic record and unchecked corruption during his lengthy stints in government.

Berlusconi himself said he only entered politics to halt the left: “Politics was never my passion. It made me lose a lot of time and energy. If I entered the ring, it was just to prevent the communists from taking power,” he told Chi magazine in an interview to mark his 80th birthday in 2016.

The former Italian leader was treated in intensive care at Milan’s San Raffaele Hospital in April for a lung infection related to leukaemia, his doctors said at the time.

They added he had chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia – a rare type of blood cancer — that was not acute. Berlusconi suffered several bouts of ill health in recent years, including contracting CoVID-19 in 2020.

After being discharged from a 10-day hospital stay, he said the disease had been “insidious” and was the most dangerous challenge he had ever faced.

He has had a pacemaker for years, underwent heart surgery to replace an aortic valve in 2016 and had overcome prostate cancer.

Under Italian law, all five of Berlusconi’s children will receive a share of his assets, while Forza Italia might struggle to survive without him at the helm.

Berlusconi’s death leaves ‘huge void’, allies say

His death leaves a “huge void”, Italy’s defence minister said of the flamboyant billionaire media tycoon, who first came to office in 1994 and led four governments until 2011.

He led the centre-right Forza Italia party which went into coalition under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni after elections in September, when he was elected to Italy’s upper house, the Senate.

Reacting to the news, PM Meloni remembered her predecessor as a “fighter”, saying in a video message that he remained “one of the most influential men in the history of Italy”.

Her deputy Matteo Salvini said he was “broken” and thanked Berlusconi for his “friendship”, “advice” and “generosity” — while Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said: “An era is over…Farewell Silvio.”

Born in 1936 in Milan, Berlusconi began his career selling vacuum cleaners, before setting up a construction company. He went on to become one of Italy’s richest men, building a vast business empire that included television networks, publishing companies and advertising agencies.

On top of that, he gained international recognition as owner of legendary football club AC Milan — which he saved from bankruptcy in 1986 — before going into politics in the 1990s.

Former AC Milan player and manager Carlo Ancelotti, who now manages the Real Madrid team, remembered Berlusconi as a “loyal, intelligent, sincere man”.

Ancelotti, who twice won the Champions League with AC Milan under Berlusconi’s ownership, said the former PM had been a fundamental part of his journey “as a football player first, and then as a coach”.

Despite his legal woes, Berlusconi remained a major force in Italian politics and was an influential figure in Italy’s current governing coalition, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

His legacy remains a subject of debate, with some hailing him as a champion of free enterprise and a defender of Italian values, while others see him as a symbol of corruption and moral decay.

Berlusconi’s passing marks the end of an era in Italian politics and media, and leaves a complex and controversial legacy that will be debated for years to come.—Additional reporting by Davide Ghiglione & Sam Hancock, BBC News