Topline
Former Italian Prime Minister and billionaire media mogul Silvio Berlusconi is in intensive care in a Milan hospital following respiratory issues, multiple news outlets reported Wednesday.
Forza Italia party leader Silvio Berlusconi at he Senate, in Rome, on Oct. 26, 2022.
Key Facts
Berlusconi, 86, was taken to the hospital after experiencing shortness of breath and is in stable condition and being treated in intensive care in the hospital’s cardiology department, Italian news outlet Rai News reported.
Berlusconi, who has faced some health issues in recent years including a bout with Covid-19 in 2020, had been discharged from the hospital on Friday after undergoing routine tests, The Guardian reported.
Key Background
Berlusconi started the media group Finivest in the late 1970s. He then broke into the political scene in the 1990s and was first elected prime minister in 1994. Between 1994 and 2011 he served three terms as Italian prime minister. A few years later he was convicted of tax fraud and then convicted of bribing a former senator. His convictions led to a ban on running for political office from 2014 to 2019. But in 2018 an Italian court lifted the ban and Berlusconi was elected to the European Parliament in 2019. Most recently, in February, he was acquitted on allegations of bribery.
Forbes Valuation
We estimate Berlusconi’s worth at $6.9 billion from building Finivest, a media group, as well as his stakes in publishing and banking.
Further Reading
Silvio Berlusconi Being Treated In Intensive Care In Milan (The Guardian)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/anafaguy/2023/04/05/former-italian-prime-minister-silvio-berlusconi-hospitalized-reports-say/