UPDATE - 3-time Italian premier, media mogul Silvio Berlusconi dies at 86

CHANGES HEADLINE, DECK; UPDATES WITH CONFIRMATION, DETAILS, BACKGROUND

By Giada Zampano

ROME (AA) - Former Italian Prime Minister and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi died on Monday at 86, his close political allies said, confirming previous media reports.

Berlusconi was hospitalized at Milan's San Raffaele last week due to complications linked to a previously unknown chronic leukemia, after 45 days of hospitalization in April.

His family members rushed to the hospital early on Monday, TV cameras at the hospital showed.

Long-time ally and League leader Matteo Salvini announced the news at a public event, asking for a minute of silence to pay homage to Berlusconi, whom he defined a "great man and great Italian."

Berlusconi's health looked increasingly frail in the past few weeks, and he was rushed to San Raffaele for a second time in three weeks last Friday.

He had suffered over the years from heart problems, prostate cancer and was hospitalized for a severe COVID-19 infection in 2020.

- 'Farewell Silvio'

“Silvio Berlusconi was most of all a fighter. He was a man who has never been fearful of defending his convictions,” said Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in a video message.

“His courage and determination were exactly what made him one of the most influential men in Italy’s history.

“With him we have fought, won and lost many battles. We will achieve the objectives that together we had determined also for him. Farewell Silvio,” she said.

- Colorful leader who left his mark in business, media, sports and politics

A media mogul-turned-politician, Berlusconi dominated Italy’s political scene for three decades, imposing his revolutionary model of communication and taking on the durable role of kingmaker, despite a long string of judicial troubles.

He was born in Milan on Sept. 29, 1936, to a middle-class family, and started his entrepreneurial career as a real estate developer, becoming considerably wealthy within the decade.

In 1980, he created Canale 5, Italy’s first commercial television network. With his newly-created TV stations dominating Italian airwaves by the end of the decade, Berlusconi diversified into different sectors from retail to publishing, as well as the AC Milan football team.

He eventually came to own more than 150 businesses, gathered under the Fininvest holding company.

Berlusconi turned his attention to politics in 1994, when he formed the center-right party Forza Italia and, thanks to his successful marketing strategies and strong communications skills, was elected prime minister in just a few months. His first tenure, however, did not go smoothly.

Soon after taking office in May 1994, magistrates launched a corruption investigation into his business empire, and disputes within the governing coalition culminated in the defection of his key Northern League ally. With a vote of no-confidence looming, Berlusconi resigned in December 1994, but stayed on in a caretaker capacity until January.

He was later convicted of fraud and corruption, but the verdicts were later overturned. He remained at the head of Forza Italia despite these charges, along with wide criticism over his control of much of the country’s media.

A few years later, Berlusconi staged the first of his numerous political comebacks, promising tax cuts, more jobs, and higher pensions as he led a center-right coalition to victory in the 2001 national elections and became premier again.

It took a fatal combination of the eurozone’s debt crisis, a bitter party split, and embarrassing accounts of his so-called “bunga-bunga” parties, featuring showgirls at his private residences, to push Berlusconi out of office for the last time in 2011, as protesters gathered in central Rome to celebrate his departure.

In 2013, the Italian Senate expelled Berlusconi over a tax fraud conviction stemming from his media business and he was banned from holding public office for five years. That marked his exit from the main political stage for a few months, perhaps convincing many observers it would be the end of his enduring political leadership.

But, despite suffering a heart attack that his doctor said could have killed him in 2016, and receiving emergency bowel surgery in 2019, Berlusconi was set for yet another surprising political comeback.

After serving a one-year sentence of community service due to the tax fraud conviction, a court ruled he could once again hold public office and he won a seat in the European Parliament in 2019, at the age of 82.

Over the past few years, the strong surge of nationalist populism in Italy gave Berlusconi a key opportunity to play the role of the responsible, pro-EU leader of a moderate center-right. His European rehabilitation seemed finally sealed when his Forza Italia party joined a “national unity” coalition led by the former president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, as a guarantor of political stability.

With the latest national elections in September 2022, Berlusconi confirmed once again his pivotal role as part of the rightist bloc led by far-right leader Giorgia Meloni, who swept to victory and became the first woman to be prime minister in the Italian Republic’s history.

The octogenarian media mogul also secured a parliamentary comeback, winning a seat in the Senate nearly a decade after being banned from holding public office.

While overall, his Forza Italia party lost ground compared with the 2018 general elections, it fared better than expected and, with 8% of the vote, finished right behind its other ally, the anti-immigrant Northern League of Salvini.

Berlusconi had pledged to exercise a moderating influence over the other two more radical parties in the center-right coalition.