The former prime minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi, died

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi died on Monday at the age of 86, the BBC reported.

He had been in the hospital for 45 days after being diagnosed with pneumonia.

Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian prime minister who was embroiled in sex scandals and corruption allegations, has died at the age of 86.

A media magnate, billionaire Berlusconi first became prime minister in 1994 and led four governments until 2011.

Berlusconi used his television networks and vast wealth to launch his long political career.

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To admirers, the former political leader was a skilled and charismatic statesman who tried to elevate Italy to the world stage. To critics, he was a populist who threatened to undermine democracy by using political power as a means to enrich himself and his businesses.

Berlusconi was born in Milan on September 29, 1936, the son of a middle-class banker. He earned a law degree, and at age 25 he founded a construction company and built apartment complexes for middle-class families on the outskirts of Milan, part of a postwar boom. But his astronomical fortune came from the media. In the late 1970s and 1980s, it bypassed Italy's state television monopoly RAI by creating a de facto network in which local stations all showed the same program.

Berlusconi saw himself as Italy's savior from what he described as the communist threat - years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

From the start of his political career in 1994, he portrayed himself as the target of a judiciary he described as left-wing sympathizers. He always proclaimed his innocence.

His first government in 1994 collapsed after eight months when an ally leading an anti-immigrant party won support. But aided by an aggressive campaign that included mass magazine ads touting his success story, Berlusconi won in 2001. Making occasional cabinet changes, he stayed in power for five years, setting a record on the longevity of the government in Italy.

His second term, from 2001-2006, was perhaps his golden age, when as Italy's longest-serving head of government he raised Italy's global profile through his friendship with US President George W. Bush.

In 2008, he returned for what would be his final term as prime minister. The mandate ended abruptly in 2011 when financial markets lost faith in his ability to protect Italy from succumbing to the eurozone's sovereign debt crisis. For the relief of Germany's economic power, Berlusconi resigned.

The criminal cases weighing on Berlusconi were numerous. He always won on appeal or the cases were stayed. The investigations targeted the tycoon's so-called "bunga bunga" parties involving young and underage women, or his businesses, which included the football team AC Milan, the country's three biggest private television networks, magazines and a daily newspaper as well as advertising and film companies.

Only one charge resulted in a conviction – a case of tax fraud stemming from a sale of film rights to his business empire. The sentence was upheld in 2013 by Italy's highest criminal court, but he was released from prison because of his age of 76 and ordered to do community service, helping Alzheimer's patients.

He no longer had a seat in the Senate and was barred from running for or holding public office for six years under anti-corruption laws.

He returned to office again - elected to the European Parliament at the age of 82 and then last year to the Italian Senate.

His political party, Forza Italia, was a coalition partner with the current prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, a far-right leader who came to power last year.

Berlusconi's friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin put him at odds with Meloni, a staunch supporter of Ukraine. On his 86th birthday, while the war was at its height, Putin sent Berlusconi his best wishes and vodka, and the Italian boasted that he returned the favor by returning Italian wine.

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Health concerns dogged Berlusconi over the years. He suffered from heart disease, prostate cancer and was hospitalized for COVID-19 in 2020. Italian news agency LaPresse reported Berlusconi's death after he was hospitalized on Friday for the second time in a month for leukemia treatment chronic.

Translated by: Forca Jashari