Silvio Berlusconi, former Italian PM, dies at 86

1 year ago 23
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Silvio Berlusconi smirks, looking confident, at a polling station after casting his voteImage source, AFP

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Berlusconi led centre-right party Forza Italy and was elected to the Senate last September

Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian PM who bounced back from sex scandals and corruption allegations, has died aged 86.

He died at the San Raffaele hospital in Milan, according to Italian media.

In April he was treated for a lung infection linked to a previously undisclosed case of chronic leukaemia.

A flamboyant billionaire media tycoon, Berlusconi first came to office in 1994 and led four governments until 2011.

He led the centre-right Forza Italia party which went into coalition under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni after elections in September, when he was elected to Italy's upper house, the Senate.

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