Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi Hospitalized

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is being treated in intensive care in the cardiac unit at Milan’s San Raffaele hospital, according to Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera.

Berlusconi, the 86-year-old leader of conservative party Forza Italia, arrived at the hospital showing symptoms of “heavy breathing,” which doctors said to be a case of pneumonia, according to Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera. After receiving a CT scan, he is now waiting for further examinations.

Coordinator of Forza Italia and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Berlusconi’s condition was due to “an unresolved infection” but reassured that he is now awake and can speak, according to Corriere Della Sera.

The billionaire media tycoon, who served as Italy’s prime minister four times, has had several episodes of sickness in the last years, according to The Guardian. He went to the hospital in 2016 for heart surgery and prostate cancer, and several times in 2020 after contracting COVID-19.

Berlusconi’s party, nevertheless, became last September part of the coalition with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s party, Brothers Of Italy, and Matteo Salvini’s League, although the billionaire doesn’t have an active role in the government, according to The Guardian.

In February, Berlusconi provoked controversy for making negative remarks toward Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, going against Meloni’s position on the matter, according to NBC News.

Berlusconi is currently the oldest Italian politician to be still serving as a leader since the country became a republic in 1986, according to Fox News.

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