Italians bid farewell to ex-PM Silvio Berlusconi

Liaquat Ali

Thousands gather in Milan for state funeral of controversial politician and business mogul who dominated public life for decades.

Milan, Italy – It is an official day of national mourning in Italy with flags flying half-mast to mark the death of Silvio Berlusconi, the country’s most divisive and charismatic public figure who dominated politics, business and sport for decades.

Tens of thousands of supporters of the controversial four-time prime minister gathered for a state funeral on Wednesday in Milan to pay their respects to the “Knight” – a man who embodied the modern era of self-made moguls and remained a darling to many Italians despite a history of legal woes, sex scandals and international gaffes.

Berlusconi died on Monday aged 86 at the San Raffaele hospital in Milan. He had been admitted there on Friday for preplanned tests related to a chronic form of leukaemia.

His death came as a shock to many. Despite his frail health, Berlusconi’s defining presence on Italy’s political scene – coupled with his exuberance and perpetual ultra-tanned look – had almost created an illusion that he would have lived in perpetuity!

“He has left a huge void,” said Rosanna de Angelis, a 60-year-old boutique owner in Milan’s city centre. “He made everybody feel important, he was humane,” she added.

“We will all miss him, even those who criticised him – and even cartoonists who won’t have anything to sketch now,” said Tiziana Guerra, who sells flowers close to the Duomo Gothic cathedral, a 14th-century architectural masterpiece where Berlusconi’s funeral took place.

Berlusconi stormed into Italian politics in 1994 with an eight-minute video announcing the founding of a new right-wing party, Forza Italia (Go Italy). His goal was to build a new political movement on the ashes of the post-1945 First Republic which had been decimated by a wave of corruption scandals that had left Italians distrustful of the political elite.

Already a successful entrepreneur, media tycoon and owner of the successful AC Milan football team, Berlusconi sought to win the hearts of Italians by using radically different language – that was direct, modern and populist. He broke away from a decades-old tradition that wanted politicians to have a role in educating the electorate and used his allure instead to directly engage with the people. In the process, he reoriented politics away from the ideological background of the traditional parties and onto a cultural one.

A divisive figure in life, Berlusconi managed to trigger controversies following his death, too. The government’s announcement of a day of national mourning – an honour not granted to any other former prime minister!