Silvio Berlusconi died Monday, June 12, from leukemia. The 86-year-old former President of the Italian Council had been hospitalized for a few days at San Raffaele Hospital in Milan. Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to the memory of the former Italian leader on Monday evening and presented “his sincere condolences to his loved ones and to the Italian people”. “With the Cavaliere disappears a major figure of contemporary Italy who had occupied the front of the political scene for many years”, underlined the Elysée in a press release. Follow our live.
“Silvio Berlusconi was above all a fighter”. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni quickly paid tribute to the Cavaliere on Monday. She also described “one of the most influential men in the history of Italy”. Rome declared a day of national mourning on Wednesday, as theex-director will be entitled to state funeral in Milan.
His Forza Italia party in mourning. “We would have liked never to let you go. Farewell President”, wrote on Twitter the centre-right Italian party Forza Italia, which Silivio Berlusconi founded in 1994. “Berlusconi was a great political leader”for his part reacted the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, praising “a person of great humanity and a successful entrepreneur”.
Vladimir Putin hails a ‘true friend’. The Russian president paid tribute to the former head of the Italian government whom he considers, he says, as a “dear person” and one “true friend”. In a condolence telegram addressed to Italian President Sergio Mattarella, he says he has always admired his “wisdom” and praised his “incredible vital energy”of his “optimism” and sound “sense of humor”according to a statement from the Kremlin.
Tributes from the French side. The Republicans hailed in a press release the disappearance of“a conquering entrepreneur and figure of the Italian right”. It was one “major representative of the European right”, notes the party led by Eric Ciotti. On the side of the French far right, Marine Le Pen paid tribute to a “atypical character, with an extraordinary life and a dazzling journey”.