(Milan) Former Italian head of government Silvio Berlusconi, 86, left the Milan hospital on Friday where he was admitted six weeks ago for leukemia and a lung infection, an AFP photographer noted.
Silvio Berlusconi rushed into a sedan with tinted windows which left around 1:15 p.m. (7:15 a.m. Eastern time) the San Raffaele hospital in the Lombard capital where he had entered on April 5.
He had been admitted to this prestigious establishment to treat a state of weakness linked to a lung infection but his doctors had revealed that he suffered from chronic leukaemia.
He had addressed his supporters for the first time in early May, in a video message, from his hospital room, seated behind a desk with the party banner and the Italian flag behind him.
Silvio Berlusconi has been hospitalized several times in recent years, including after contracting COVID-19 in 2020.
PHOTO GUGLIELMO MANGIAPANE, REUTERS ARCHIVES
Silvio Berlusconi
The journey of this eternal ghost, whose political death has been wrongly announced many times, merges with the Italian history of the last 30 years.
Prime minister three times between 1994 and 2011, he is currently a senator and president of his right-wing party, Forza Italia, a minor partner in the coalition government of far-right prime minister Giorgia Meloni.
Mme Meloni had visited him in hospital on Sunday, saying he was “in excellent spirits” and continued to work “tirelessly”.
The number two of Forza Italia, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, and his coalition ally Matteo Salvini, leader of the anti-immigration League party, also visited him.
“Welcome home great Silvio,” Matteo Salvini tweeted on Friday. “We are all happy to have you back home, welcome president,” Tajani also wrote.
Soccer fan, Silvio Berlusconi chaired AC Milan for 31 years, which won the Champions League five times under his era, before selling in April 2017 to Chinese investors. He is the current owner of the Monza club.
His career has also been marred by scandals and legal issues, which over the past decade have focused on proceedings related to his infamous “Bunga Bunga” sex parties.
The octogenarian, whose companion Marta Fascina is 53 years his junior, caused a scandal again in December 2022 by promising his players before a match to bring “in the locker room” a “bus of whores” in the event of victory.