AC Milan owner and former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi passed away at the age of 86. After Berlusconi was transported to the hospital on Friday for the second time in a month to be treated for chronic leukemia, the Italian news agency LaPresse announced that he had passed away. Between 1986 and 2017, AC Milan was owned by Silvio Berlusconi, under whose reign the team won a Coppa Italia, eight Serie A championships, and three Champions Leagues. Only one year after selling to the Yonghong Li-led company, he joined Monza once again in football. They won their first promotion to Serie A in 2021. Despite controversies surrounding his sex-driven parties and accusations of corruption, Berlusconi was Italy’s longest-serving prime minister. Before entering politics in 1994, he created the biggest commercial TV network in Italy.
With his passing, one of the most colorful and contentious political careers in recent memory—notoriety for his infamous “bunga bunga” parties—comes to an end. The prostitution-related sex parties in Italy raised a lot of controversy. When Berlusconi was officially found guilty of paying Karima El Mahroug—better known by her stage name Ruby Rubacuori, which translates to “Ruby the Heartstealer” in Italian—for sex services between February and May 2010 when she was under the age of 18—he was the prime minister. Later, an appeal resulted in his innocence.
The flamboyant and brazen Berlusconi presided over Italy three times, from 1994–1995, 2001–2006, and 2008–2011. In 2011, as Italy faced several scandals and was on the verge of a fiscal catastrophe akin to that in Greece, he announced his final resignation as prime minister. He was formerly prohibited from entering public office due to a tax fraud conviction resulting from transactions with his media empire, but the prohibition was removed in 2018. After the national election in September of last year, he returned to the Italian Senate. When he claimed that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had exchanged birthday wishes and accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of starting the war, he caused controversy with his remarks.
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