194 Facts About Silvio Berlusconi

1.

Silvio Berlusconi is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995,2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011.

2.

Silvio Berlusconi was a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1994 to 2013, and has served as a member of the Senate of the Republic since 2022, and previously from March to November 2013, and as a Member of the European Parliament since 2019, and previously from 1999 to 2001.

3.

Silvio Berlusconi is nicknamed Il Cavaliere for his Order of Merit for Labour; he voluntarily resigned from this order in March 2014.

4.

Silvio Berlusconi was Prime Minister for nine years in total, making him the longest serving post-war Prime Minister of Italy, and the third longest-serving since Italian unification, after Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Giolitti.

5.

Silvio Berlusconi was the leader of the centre-right party Forza Italia from 1994 to 2009, and its successor party The People of Freedom from 2009 to 2013.

6.

Silvio Berlusconi was the senior G8 leader from 2009 until 2011, and he currently holds the record for hosting G8 summits.

7.

On 1 August 2013, Silvio Berlusconi was convicted of tax fraud by the Supreme Court of Cassation.

8.

Silvio Berlusconi pledged to stay leader of Forza Italia throughout his custodial sentence and public office ban.

9.

Silvio Berlusconi returned to the Senate after winning a seat in the 2022 Italian general election.

10.

Silvio Berlusconi was the first person to assume the premiership without having held any prior government or administrative offices.

11.

Silvio Berlusconi is known for his populist political style and brash personality.

12.

Silvio Berlusconi still remains a controversial figure who divides public opinion and political analysts.

13.

Silvio Berlusconi was born in 1936 in Milan, where he was raised in a middle-class family.

14.

Silvio Berlusconi's father, Luigi Berlusconi, was a bank employee, and his mother, Rosa Bossi, a housewife.

15.

Silvio Berlusconi was not required to serve the standard one-year stint in the Italian army which was compulsory at the time.

16.

Silvio Berlusconi was divorced from Dall'Oglio in 1985, and married Lario in 1990.

17.

Silvio Berlusconi was shown cuddling lambs he had adopted to save from slaughtering for the traditional Easter Sunday feast; he did not confirm or deny whether he himself is a vegetarian.

18.

Silvio Berlusconi first entered the media world in 1973, by setting up a small cable television company, TeleMilano, to service units built on his Segrate properties.

19.

In 1978, Silvio Berlusconi founded his first media group, Fininvest, and joined the Propaganda Due masonic lodge.

20.

In 1980, Silvio Berlusconi founded Italy's first private national network, Canale 5, followed shortly thereafter by Italia 1, which was bought from the Rusconi family in 1982, and Rete 4, which was bought from Mondadori in 1984.

21.

Silvio Berlusconi then launched three international sister networks: La Cinq, Tele 5, and Telecinco.

22.

Silvio Berlusconi created the first and only Italian commercial TV empire.

23.

Silvio Berlusconi was assisted by his connections to Bettino Craxi, secretary-general of the Italian Socialist Party and the prime minister of Italy at that time, whose government passed, on 20 October 1984, an emergency decree legalising the nationwide transmissions made by Berlusconi's television stations.

24.

In 1995, Silvio Berlusconi sold a portion of his media holdings, first to the German media group Kirch Group and then by public offer.

25.

In 1999, Silvio Berlusconi expanded his media interests by forming a partnership with Kirch called the Epsilon MediaGroup.

26.

Silvio Berlusconi rapidly rose to the forefront of Italian politics in January 1994.

27.

Silvio Berlusconi was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the first time and appointed as Prime Minister following the 1994 Italian general election, when Forza Italia gained a relative majority a mere three months after having been launched.

28.

Silvio Berlusconi's cabinet collapsed after nine months due to internal disagreements among the coalition parties.

29.

Silvio Berlusconi then formed his second and third cabinets, until 2006.

30.

Silvio Berlusconi was the leader of the centre-right coalition in the 2006 Italian general election, which he lost by a very narrow margin, his opponent again being Prodi.

31.

Silvio Berlusconi was re-elected in the 2008 Italian general election following the collapse of the Prodi II Cabinet and sworn in for the third time as Prime Minister on 8 May 2008.

32.

Silvio Berlusconi led the People of Freedom and its right-wing allies in the campaign for the 2013 Italian general election.

33.

Subsequently, Silvio Berlusconi's allies supported the Letta Cabinet headed by Enrico Letta of the Democratic Party, together with the centrist Civic Choice of former Prime Minister Mario Monti.

34.

Silvio Berlusconi was criticised for his electoral coalitions with right-wing populist parties and for apologetic remarks about Mussolini; he officially apologised for Italy's actions in Libya during colonial rule.

35.

Silvio Berlusconi subsequently served as Prime Minister of Italy from 1994 to 1995,2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011.

36.

Silvio Berlusconi's career was racked with controversies and trials; amongst these was his failure to honour his promise to sell his personal assets in Mediaset, the largest television broadcaster in Italy, to dispel any perceived conflicts of interest.

37.

On 26 January 1994, Silvio Berlusconi announced his decision to enter politics, in his own words to "enter the field", presenting his own political party, Forza Italia, on a platform focused on defeating communists.

38.

Silvio Berlusconi launched a massive campaign of electoral advertisements on his three TV networks and prepared his top advertising salesmen with seminars and screen tests, of whom 50 were subsequently elected despite an absence of legislative experience.

39.

Silvio Berlusconi was appointed Prime Minister in 1994, but his term in office was short because of the inherent contradictions in his coalition: the League, a regional party with a strong electoral base in northern Italy, was at that time fluctuating between federalist and separatist positions and the National Alliance was a nationalist party that had yet to renounce neo-fascism at the time.

40.

In December 1994, following the leaking to the press of news of a fresh investigation by Milan magistrates, Umberto Bossi, leader of the Lega Nord, left the coalition claiming that the electoral pact had not been respected, forcing Silvio Berlusconi to resign from office and shifting the majority's weight to the centre-left.

41.

In 1998, various articles attacking Silvio Berlusconi were published by Lega Nord's official newspaper La Padania, with titles such as "La Fininvest e nata da Cosa Nostra".

42.

Silvio Berlusconi remained as caretaker prime minister for a little over a month until his replacement by a technocratic government headed by Lamberto Dini.

43.

In 2001, Silvio Berlusconi ran again, as leader of the right-wing coalition House of Freedoms, which included the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats, Lega Nord, the National Alliance and other parties.

44.

Silvio Berlusconi committed in this contract to improving several aspects of the Italian economy and life, and promised to not stand for re-election in 2006 if he failed to honour at least four of these five promises.

45.

Opposition parties claim Silvio Berlusconi was not able to achieve the goals he promised in his Contratto con gli Italiani.

46.

Luca Ricolfi, an independent analyst, held that Silvio Berlusconi had managed to deliver only one promise out of five, the one concerning minimum pension rates.

47.

Silvio Berlusconi's coalition held only two of the regions up for re-election.

48.

On 2 December 2006, during a major demonstration of the centre-right in Rome against the Prodi II Cabinet, Silvio Berlusconi proposed the foundation of a Freedom Party, arguing that the people and voters of the different political movements aligned to the demonstration were all part of a people of freedom.

49.

Silvio Berlusconi stated that this new political movement could include the participation of other parties.

50.

Silvio Berlusconi capitalised on discontent over the nation's stagnating economy and the unpopularity of Prodi's government.

51.

Silvio Berlusconi's declared top priorities were to remove piles of rubbish from the streets of Naples and to improve the state of the Italian economy, which had under-performed the rest of the eurozone for years.

52.

Silvio Berlusconi said he was open to working with the opposition, and pledged to fight tax avoidance and tax evasion, reform the judicial system and reduce public debt.

53.

Silvio Berlusconi intended to reduce the number of cabinet ministers to 12.

54.

On 21 November 2008, the National Council of Forza Italia, chaired by Alfredo Biondi and attended by Silvio Berlusconi himself, dissolved Forza Italia and established the PdL, whose inauguration took place on 27 March 2009, the 15th anniversary of Silvio Berlusconi's first electoral victory.

55.

Silvio Berlusconi's criticism was aimed at the leadership style of Berlusconi, who tends to rely on his personal charisma to lead the party from the centre and supports a less structured form of party, a movement-party that organises itself only at election times.

56.

The conflict between Fini and Silvio Berlusconi was covered live on television.

57.

Silvio Berlusconi asked Fini to step down, and the executive proposed the suspension from party membership of three MPs who had harshly criticised Silvio Berlusconi and accused some party members of criminal offences.

58.

The popularity of this decision was reflected in the fact that while he was resigning crowds sang the hallelujah portion of George Frideric Handel's "Messiah", complete with some vocal accompaniment; there was dancing in the streets outside the Quirinal Palace, the official residence of the President of Italy, where Silvio Berlusconi went to tender his resignation.

59.

Silvio Berlusconi was often found guilty in lower courts but used loopholes in Italy's legal system to evade incarceration.

60.

Silvio Berlusconi had failed to meet some of his pre-election promises and had failed to prevent economic decline and introduce serious reforms.

61.

Many critics of Silvio Berlusconi accused him of using his power primarily to protect his own business ventures.

62.

On 12 November 2011, after a final meeting with his cabinet, Silvio Berlusconi met Italian President Giorgio Napolitano at the Palazzo del Quirinale to tend his resignation.

63.

Silvio Berlusconi accused Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy, Christine Lagarde and Giorgio Napolitano, along with other global economic and financial powers, to have plotted against him and forced him to resign, because he refused to accept a loan from the International Monetary Fund, which according to him, would have sold the country to the IMF.

64.

In December 2012, Silvio Berlusconi announced on television that he would run again to become Prime Minister of Italy.

65.

On 7 January 2013, Silvio Berlusconi announced he had made a coalition agreement with Lega Nord ; as part of it, PdL would support Roberto Maroni's bid for the presidency of Lombardy, and he would run as "leader of the coalition" but suggested he could accept a role as Minister of Economy under a cabinet headed by another People of Freedom member, such as Angelino Alfano.

66.

Later that day, LN leader Maroni confirmed his party would not support Silvio Berlusconi being appointed as Prime Minister in the case of an electoral win.

67.

In June 2013, Silvio Berlusconi announced the refoundation of his first party Forza Italia.

68.

On 1 August 2013, Silvio Berlusconi was convicted of tax fraud by the court of final instance, the Supreme Court of Cassation, which confirmed his four-year prison sentence, of which three years are automatically pardoned, along with a public office ban for two years.

69.

Silvio Berlusconi pledged to stay leader of Forza Italia throughout his custodial sentence and public office ban.

70.

Silvio Berlusconi was not able to campaign for his party, and according to him this was the main reason for declining opinion poll numbers, which are putting the party steadily in fourth place, behind the Democratic Party, the Five Star Movement and FI's long-time coalition partner Lega Nord.

71.

In March 2017, Silvio Berlusconi expressed his intention to run as centre-right candidate for the premiership, even if he is banned from public office until 2019; the 2018 Italian general election was his seventh one as the centre-right frontunner.

72.

In January 2019, Silvio Berlusconi expressed his intention to run for candidacy in the 2019 European Parliament election in Italy.

73.

Silvio Berlusconi was elected in the Parliament, becoming the oldest member of the assembly.

74.

Silvio Berlusconi was a potential nominee in the 2022 Italian presidential election, which was ultimately won by Sergio Mattarella.

75.

Silvio Berlusconi is one of the strongest supporters of Turkey's application to accede to the European Union.

76.

On 30 January 2003, Silvio Berlusconi signed "The letter of the eight" supporting the US preparations for 2003 invasion of Iraq.

77.

Bruno Mentasti-Granelli, a close friend of Silvio Berlusconi, owned 33 percent of CEIGH.

78.

The Italian parliament blocked the contract and accused Silvio Berlusconi of having a personal interest in the Eni-Gazprom agreement.

79.

Silvio Berlusconi is among the most vocal supporters of closer ties between Russia and the European Union.

80.

In September 2014, Silvio Berlusconi accused the United States, NATO and EU of "a ridiculously and irresponsibly sanctioning approach to the Russian Federation, which cannot but defend Ukrainian citizens of Russian origin that it considers brothers".

81.

Silvio Berlusconi condemned the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying he was deeply disappointed by the behaviour of Russian President Putin.

82.

Silvio Berlusconi believed that Israel should be made an EU member, stating that "My greatest desire, as long as I am a protagonist in politics, is to bring Israel into membership of the European Union".

83.

Silvio Berlusconi became the first Western leader to visit Lukashenko since Lukashenko came to power in 1994.

84.

At a press conference, Silvio Berlusconi paid compliments to Lukashenko and said "Good luck to you and your people, whom I know love you".

85.

On 5 April 2009, at the EU-US summit in Prague Silvio Berlusconi proposed an eight-point road map to accelerate the Euro-Atlantic integration of the western Balkans.

86.

On 30 August 2008, the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi signed a historic cooperation treaty in Benghazi.

87.

Silvio Berlusconi defines himself as moderate, liberal, and a free trader, but he is often described as a populist or a conservative.

88.

Silvio Berlusconi has declared himself to be persecuted by judges, having undergone 34 trials, accusing them of being manipulated by left-wingers and comparing himself to Enzo Tortora, victim of a miscarriage of justice.

89.

Nobody who knows Silvio Berlusconi and has watched the rise and rise of Donald Trump can fail to be struck by the parallels.

90.

Silvio Berlusconi pointed out other commonalities, such as responding to concerns about conflicts of interest by delegating responsibility for running their businesses to family members.

91.

Silvio Berlusconi has been tried in Italian courts in several cases.

92.

Silvio Berlusconi has always been able to afford top lawyers and publicists, for example Nicolas Sarkozy was one of his French top defenders.

93.

In February 2012, Milan prosecutors brought charges against Silvio Berlusconi for alleged abuse of office connected with the publication of confidential wiretaps by the Italian newspaper Il Giornale, which is owned by Silvio Berlusconi's brother, in 2005.

94.

On 7 February 2012, at an initial court hearing, Silvio Berlusconi denied he had listened to the tapes and ordered their publication.

95.

On 7 March 2013, Silvio Berlusconi was sentenced to a one-year jail term.

96.

In February 2013, Silvio Berlusconi was under investigation for corruption and illegal financing of political parties by the public prosecutor of Naples, in the figures of Vincenzo Piscitelli, Henry John Woodcock, Francesco Curcio, Alessandro Milita and Fabrizio Vanorio.

97.

The court hearing at first-instance for the indicted Silvio Berlusconi, has been scheduled to start on 11 February 2014.

98.

Di Pietro subsequently sued Silvio Berlusconi for aggravated defamation in June 2008.

99.

On 19 January 2012, this judgement was set aside by the Supreme Court, which ruled that Silvio Berlusconi had been speaking during a campaign rally and not in an institutional setting; meaning he was not covered by the immunity protection provided for by Article 68, and consequently should face a new trial to be held either at the Viterbo court or the Constitutional Court.

100.

The Constitutional Court ruled on 20 June 2013, that the Chamber of Deputies decree having extended Silvio Berlusconi's immunity beyond what was provided for by the constitution, was a case with conflict of powers and should be disregarded.

101.

Silvio Berlusconi was charged with abusing his political powers in an attempt to cover up the relationship.

102.

Silvio Berlusconi was sentenced by the Court of First Instance to seven years in jail, and banned from public office for life.

103.

In January 2014, Silvio Berlusconi deposited an appeal against the judgment, requesting complete absolution.

104.

On 18 July 2014, the Italian appeals court announced the appeal had been successful and the convictions against Silvio Berlusconi were being overturned.

105.

On 26 October 2012, Silvio Berlusconi was sentenced to four years of punishment by an Italian court for tax evasion.

106.

The decision marked the first time that Silvio Berlusconi received a definitive sentence, despite being on trial nearly 30 times during the last 25 years.

107.

The pending senate vote, combined with anger over Silvio Berlusconi's conviction presented a serious political challenge for the fragile ruling coalition.

108.

Silvio Berlusconi argued that the Severino law can not be used to expel persons convicted for crimes committed before December 2012, and pleaded for the proceedings to be postponed until the European Court of Human Rights or the Constitutional Court of Italy had ruled, whether or not he was correct about his interpretation of the law.

109.

Silvio Berlusconi stated that he in any case had decided to appeal the court ruling against him to the European Court of Human Rights, as he still claimed the ruling itself to be a political and unjust attempt by his opponents, to deprive him of his political power.

110.

The response by Prime Minister Enrico Letta's centre-left Democratic Party was to reject Silvio Berlusconi's plea, accusing him of only launching time-wasting maneuvers.

111.

Silvio Berlusconi was expected to start serving his four-year prison sentence, either under house arrest or doing unpaid social community work, in mid-October 2013.

112.

The court imposed this public office ban, which did not change the fact that, according to the Severino law, Silvio Berlusconi received a ban preventing him from running as a candidate in legislative elections for a prolonged six-year period, which effectively superseded the shorter court imposed public office ban.

113.

Silvio Berlusconi began his community service at a Catholic care home centre on 9 May 2014, where he is required to work four hours a week for a year with elderly dementia patients.

114.

Silvio Berlusconi was sentenced to seven years in jail, and banned from public office for life.

115.

Silvio Berlusconi's supporters hailed him as the "novus homo", an outsider who was going to bring a new efficiency to the public bureaucracy and reform the state from top to bottom.

116.

Silvio Berlusconi was investigated for forty different inquests in less than two years.

117.

Silvio Berlusconi's governments passed laws that shortened statutory terms for tax fraud.

118.

Silvio Berlusconi owns via Mediaset 3 of 7 national TV channels:.

119.

Silvio Berlusconi knows it and the Honourable Letta knows it.

120.

Silvio Berlusconi said that they "use television as a criminal means of communication".

121.

The publishing group announced it would begin legal proceedings against Silvio Berlusconi, given the "criminal and civil relevance" of his remarks.

122.

In October 2009, Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Jean-Francois Julliard declared that Silvio Berlusconi "is on the verge of being added to our list of Predators of Press Freedom", which would be a first for a European leader.

123.

Silvio Berlusconi added that Italy will probably be ranked last in the European Union in the upcoming edition of the RWB press freedom index.

124.

One of Berlusconi's strongest critics in the media outside Italy is the British weekly The Economist, which in its issue of 26 April 2001 carried a title on its front cover, 'Why Silvio Berlusconi is unfit to lead Italy'.

125.

The magazine claimed that the documentation contained in its article proves that Silvio Berlusconi is 'unfit' for office because of his numerous conflicts of interest.

126.

Silvio Berlusconi claimed the article contained "a series of old accusations" that was an "insult to truth and intelligence".

127.

Lane points out that Silvio Berlusconi has not defended himself in court against the main charges, but has relied upon political and legal manipulations, most notably by changing the statute of limitation to prevent charges being completed in the first place.

128.

Silvio Berlusconi did so, losing versus The Economist, and being charged for all the trial costs on 5 September 2008, when the Court in Milan issued a judgment rejecting all Mr Silvio Berlusconi's claims and sentenced him to compensate for The Economists legal expenses.

129.

In June 2011, The Economist published a strong article dealing with Mr Silvio Berlusconi, titled "The man who screwed an entire country".

130.

On some occasions, laws passed by the Silvio Berlusconi administration have effectively delayed ongoing trials involving him.

131.

La Repubblica, for example, sustained that Silvio Berlusconi passed 17 different laws which have advantaged himself.

132.

Silvio Berlusconi's administration attempted to pass a judicial reform intended to limit the flexibility of judges and magistrates in their decision-making.

133.

Silvio Berlusconi has never been tried on charges relating to the Sicilian Mafia, although several Mafia turncoats have stated that Silvio Berlusconi had connections with the Sicilian criminal association.

134.

Similarly, a two-year investigation, launched on evidence from Cancemi, into Silvio Berlusconi's alleged association with the Mafia was closed in 1996.

135.

Giuffre said that Silvio Berlusconi himself used to be in touch with Stefano Bontade, a top Mafia boss, in the mid-1970s.

136.

At the time Silvio Berlusconi still was just a wealthy real estate developer and started his private television empire.

137.

Silvio Berlusconi's lawyer dismissed Giuffre's testimony as "false" and an attempt to discredit the Prime Minister and his party.

138.

Giuffre said that other Mafia representatives who were in contact with Silvio Berlusconi included the Palermo Mafia bosses Filippo Graviano and Giuseppe Graviano.

139.

Silvio Berlusconi said Giuffre had perpetuated the trend that every new turncoat would attack Dell'Utri and the former Christian Democrat prime minister Giulio Andreotti to earn money and judicial privileges.

140.

Spatuzza testified that his boss Giuseppe Graviano had told him in 1994, that Silvio Berlusconi was bargaining with the Mafia, concerning a political-electoral agreement between Cosa Nostra and Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia.

141.

Silvio Berlusconi went on to defend his decision by claiming that she was "in the condition to have babies", arguing that comatose women were still subject to menstruation.

142.

Silvio Berlusconi has developed a reputation for making gaffes or insensitive remarks.

143.

On 2 July 2003, Silvio Berlusconi suggested that German Social democratic MEP Martin Schulz, who had criticised his domestic policies, should play a Nazi concentration camp guard in a film.

144.

Silvio Berlusconi insisted that he was joking, but accused Schulz and others to be "bad-willing tourists of democracy".

145.

Silvio Berlusconi's list included the claim that Italy had "fewer communists, and those who are still here deny having been one".

146.

In 2003, during an interview with Nicholas Farrell, then editor of The Spectator, Silvio Berlusconi claimed that Mussolini "had been a benign dictator who did not murder opponents but sent them 'on holiday".

147.

Silvio Berlusconi had made disparaging remarks about Finnish cuisine during negotiations to decide on the location of the European Food Safety Authority in 2001.

148.

Silvio Berlusconi caused further offence in 2005, when he claimed that during the negotiations he had had to "dust off his playboy charms" to persuade the Finnish president, Tarja Halonen, to concede that the EFSA should be based in Parma instead of Finland, and compared Finnish smoked reindeer unfavourably to culatello.

149.

Halonen took the incident in good humour, retorting that Silvio Berlusconi had "overestimated his persuasion skills".

150.

The Finnish pizza chain Kotipizza responded by launching a variety of pizza called Pizza Silvio Berlusconi, using smoked reindeer as the topping.

151.

In March 2006, Silvio Berlusconi alleged that Chinese communists under Mao Zedong had "boiled [children] to fertilise the fields".

152.

In 2008 Silvio Berlusconi criticised the composition of the Council of Ministers of the Spanish Government as being too 'pink' by virtue of the fact that it had an equal number of men and women.

153.

Silvio Berlusconi stated that he doubted that such a composition would be possible in Italy given the "prevalence of men" in Italian politics.

154.

Also in 2008, Silvio Berlusconi caused controversy at a joint press conference with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

155.

On 24 January 2009, Silvio Berlusconi announced his aim to increase the numbers of military patrolling the Italian cities from 3,000 to 30,000 to crack down on what he called an "evil army" of criminals.

156.

Silvio Berlusconi retorted that he had merely wanted to compliment Italian women.

157.

Two days after the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake, Silvio Berlusconi suggested that people left homeless should view their experience as a camping weekend.

158.

In October 2010, Silvio Berlusconi was chastised by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano after he was filmed telling "offensive and deplorable jokes", including one whose punchline was similar to one of the gravest blasphemies in the Italian language.

159.

Silvio Berlusconi responded to the allegations by saying the jokes were "neither an offence nor a sin, but merely a laugh".

160.

On 27 January 2013, on the occasion of the Holocaust Remembrance Day, Silvio Berlusconi said the Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, except for passing anti-Jewish laws in 1938, only had done "good things" for Italy; and said Mussolini from a strategic point of view did the right thing in siding with Adolf Hitler during World War II, because Hitler at the point of time when the alliance was made had appeared to be winning the war.

161.

The wiretap was part of an investigation by the Public Prosecutor Office of Naples, where Silvio Berlusconi was investigated for corruption.

162.

Silvio Berlusconi urges Sacca to broadcast a telefilm series which was strongly advocated by his ally Umberto Bossi.

163.

Silvio Berlusconi demanded a public apology, claiming that for the third time his wife had "done this to me in the middle of an election campaign", and stated that there was little prospect of his marriage continuing.

164.

Silvio Berlusconi claimed that Berlusconi had not attended his own sons' 18th birthday parties, and that she "cannot remain with a man who consorts with minors" and "is not well".

165.

Silvio Berlusconi claimed that he knew Letizia only through her father and that he never met her alone without her parents.

166.

Ten days later, Letizia's ex-boyfriend, Luigi Flaminio, claimed that Silvio Berlusconi had contacted Letizia personally in October 2008 and said she had spent a week without her parents at Silvio Berlusconi's Sardinian villa around New Year's Eve 2009, a fact confirmed later by her mother.

167.

On 28 May 2009, Silvio Berlusconi said that he had never had "spicy" relations with Letizia, and said that if any such thing had occurred, he would have resigned immediately.

168.

Silvio Berlusconi accused an unspecified person of manoeuvring and bribing D'Addario.

169.

On 26 June 2009, the "ten questions" to Silvio Berlusconi were reformulated by, and subsequently republished multiple times.

170.

On 28 August 2009, Silvio Berlusconi sued, the owner company of the newspaper, and classified the ten questions as "defamatory" and "rhetorical".

171.

Silvio Berlusconi's lifestyle has raised eyebrows in Catholic circles, with vigorous criticism being expressed in particular by Avvenire, owned by the Episcopal Conference of Italy.

172.

On 22 September 2009, after a press conference, Silvio Berlusconi declared that he had asked his ministers not to respond anymore to questions regarding "gossip".

173.

Silvio Berlusconi stated that the Italian press should talk only about the "successes" of Italian Government in internal and foreign policies, adding that the press now will be able only to ask questions relating to his administration and not to gossip.

174.

D'Addario stated that Silvio Berlusconi knew that she was a paid escort.

175.

Minetti was known for previous associations with Silvio Berlusconi, having danced for Colorado Cafe, a show on one of Silvio Berlusconi's TV channels, and on Scorie, an Italian version of Candid Camera.

176.

The Guardian reported that according to a series of media reports in October 2010, Silvio Berlusconi had met El Mahroug, then 17, through Nicole Minetti.

177.

Silvio Berlusconi told Italian newspapers that she merely attended dinner at his mansion near Milan.

178.

Silvio Berlusconi's lawyers were quick to deny the allegations as "absurd and without foundation" and called the investigation a "serious interference with the private life of the prime minister without precedent in the judicial history of the country".

179.

On 15 February 2011, a judge indicted Silvio Berlusconi to stand trial on charges carrying up to 15 years in prison.

180.

Silvio Berlusconi was sentenced to seven years in prison, one more year than had been requested by the prosecution, and banned from public office for life.

181.

Silvio Berlusconi appealed the sentence and his conviction was quashed a year later, on 18 July 2014.

182.

In 2020, Wondery released a podcast about Silvio Berlusconi's rise and fall entitled Bunga Bunga hosted by comedienne Whitney Cummings.

183.

On 13 December 2009, Silvio Berlusconi was hit in the face with an alabaster statuette of Milan Cathedral after a rally in Milan's Piazza del Duomo.

184.

Silvio Berlusconi suffered facial injuries, a broken nose and two broken teeth; he was hospitalised.

185.

Silvio Berlusconi was discharged from the hospital on 17 December 2009.

186.

On 7 June 2016, after the campaign for the local elections, Silvio Berlusconi was hospitalized to the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan because of heart problems.

187.

On 2 September 2020, amid the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, Silvio Berlusconi tested positive for COVID-19.

188.

Silvio Berlusconi had had contact with businessman Flavio Briatore, who had been hospitalized after contracting the virus, and with his daughter Barbara and his son Luigi, who had tested positive.

189.

Professor Alberto Zangrillo, head of intensive care at San Raffaele Hospital, said on 11 September 2020 that Silvio Berlusconi was admitted with a very high and dangerous viral load, but that he was improving and his response to the disease had been "optimal".

190.

Silvio Berlusconi described the COVID-19 as "the most dangerous and frightening experience" of his lifetime.

191.

Silvio Berlusconi holds significant assets in television, newspaper, publishing, cinema, finance, banking, insurance, and sports.

192.

Silvio Berlusconi owns a controlling stake in Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, the largest Italian publishing house, whose publications include Panorama, one of the country's most popular news magazines.

193.

Silvio Berlusconi founded and is the major shareholder of Fininvest, which is among the largest private companies in Italy; it operates in media and finance.

194.

Silvio Berlusconi has interests in cinema and home video distribution.