(Milan) Nicknamed “the immortal” for his longevity in politics, the former head of the Italian government Silvio Berlusconi, 86, left the Milan hospital on Friday where he had been admitted six weeks ago for leukemia and a pulmonary infection.
“Today, after 45 long days, I finally came home,” said Silvio Berlusconi in a statement released after his discharge from San Raffaele hospital in the Lombard capital.
“An incredible emotion, a great relief”, continued Silvio Berlusconi. “It was a tough time, but after dark I won again.”
Expressing his gratitude to all those who supported him during his hospitalization, the former Prime Minister assured: “I never felt alone”, adding: “The nightmare is over. Long live life, always! “.
PHOTO ALESSANDRO BREMEC, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Silvio Berlusconi on leaving hospital
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.
Silvio Berlusconi addressed his supporters for the first time in early May, in a video message, from his hospital room.
Elegantly dressed, seated behind a desk with the banner of his right-wing party, Forza Italia, and the Italian flag behind him, he thanked his supporters for their support, “which more than anything helped me overcome a very dangerous pneumonia “.
After dominating Italian politics for decades, Silvio Berlusconi now appears physically diminished during his rare public appearances.
Among the richest men of the peninsula with a fortune estimated by Forbes at 6.4 billion euros, Silvio Berlusconi has been hospitalized several times in recent years.
In January 2022, he was admitted to San Raffaele to treat a urinary tract infection. The previous April, he had also been hospitalized for more than three weeks for “sequelae of COVID-19” which he had contracted in September 2020.
He had undergone major open-heart surgery in 2016, then an operation to treat an intestinal obstruction in the spring of 2019. In 1997, he had been operated on for a malignant tumor in the prostate.
Scandals
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 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”.
“We are waiting for you on the ground to fight our battles together,” she reacted on Friday.
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 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.
The philorussian declarations of the media magnate, friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, also regularly embarrass Giorgia Meloni, who was his Minister of Youth from 2008 to 2011.
But for millions of Italians it represents a golden age of the transalpine economy. His family’s holding company, Fininvest, includes television channels (MediaForEurope), newspapers and Mondadori publishing.