Key dates in the life and career of Italy’s scandal-tainted former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose death was announced on Monday.
– September 29, 1936: Born in Milan.
– 1961: Starts his real estate career, building residential districts on the outskirts of Milan.
– 1978: Founds the Fininvest holding company, comprising media, financial services, publishing and, from 1986 to 2017, the Milan AC football club.
– 1994: Creates that “Forza Italia” (Go Italy) movement, which wins legislative elections, giving him his first stint as prime minister from May to December.
– 1996: Goes on trial for the first time on corruption charges and is sentenced to 16 months in prison for false accounting, but acquitted on appeal.
– 2001: Starts a second stint as prime minister after his right-wing alliance wins the general election, serving for five years.
– 2008: After a new electoral win, returns as prime minister until 2011, resigning in the midst of a national financial crisis that risks bringing down the entire eurozone.
– 2013: Sentenced to four years in prison for tax fraud through his Mediaset media empire, and is stripped of his seat in the Senate. The sentence is commuted to one year of community service, which he serves in a home for Alzheimer’s patients.
– 2015: Acquitted on appeal after a 2013 conviction for paying for sex with a teenage prostitute and abuse of power in the “Rubygate” or “bunga bunga” affair.
– 2019: Wins a seat in the European Parliament, becoming the assembly’s oldest MEP at age 82.
– 2020: Spends 11 days in the hospital with Covid-19, calling the experience “perhaps the most difficult ordeal” of his life.
– 2022: Campaigns behind the scenes to become Italy’s president but withdraws before voting begins in parliament. In September’s general election, he wins a seat in the Senate, making a triumphant return to politics.
– February 2023: The “bunga bunga” sex scandal comes to an end when an Italian court acquits him of charges.
– April 5, 2023: Admitted to intensive care at a Milan hospital for heart problems. The next day, doctors announce he is suffering from leukaemia and a lung infection.
– May 19: Discharged from hospital after more than six weeks of treatment, saying, “I won again”.
– June 9: Hospitalised for what his doctors say are “routine checks” related to his leukaemia.