Silvio Berlusconi addresses his party members from hospital

Former President of the Italian Council Silvio Berlusconi, 86, hospitalized a month ago, spoke to his supporters for the first time on Saturday May 6, in a video message, from his hospital room. “Here I am, here for you, wearing a shirt and jacket for the first time in a month”said the billionaire, media magnate, in this pre-recorded speech, broadcast during a Congress of his (right) party, Forza Italia.

Seated behind a desk with the party banner and the Italian flag behind him, he thanked his supporters for their support, “who more than anything helped me overcome a very dangerous pneumonia”.

Silvio Berlusconi was admitted to San Raffaele Hospital in Milan on April 5 with a chest infection, after which doctors first said he had leukemia. He spent the first week and a half in intensive care. The doctors of the “Cavaliere” clarified on Wednesday that his condition was “steady” but did not say when he might be discharged from hospital. He has been hospitalized several times in recent years, including after contracting Covid-19 in 2020.

“Backbone of this government”

Forza Italia is a partner in the coalition government of Council President Giorgia Meloni. Silvio Berlusconi, is still the founder of the party, which has lost much of its support, far from the time when Silvio Berlusconi was president of the Council three times between 1994 and 2011.

In his message on Saturday, Silvio Berlusconi affirmed on Saturday that his party was the “backbone of this government”here “to ensure that its decisions are really correct, fair, balanced”.