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Silvio Berlusconi is apparently fit again
Photo: MATTEO BAZZI / EPA
Italy's former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has left the hospital where he had been treated for a lung infection and leukaemia after six weeks. The 86-year-old multi-billionaire and media mogul left Milan's San Raffaele clinic at noon on Friday and drove away wordlessly in a limousine with tinted windows, as a photographer from the AFP news agency observed.
Berlusconi was admitted to the clinic on April 5 after complaining of breathing problems. The doctors diagnosed a lung infection and announced leukemia. The celebrity patient spent the first week and a half in intensive care before being transferred to a normal ward.
At the beginning of May, the politician had addressed the supporters of the right-wing conservative party Forza Italia, which he founded, for the first time via video message from his hospital room. Berlusconi sat at a desk with a party banner and the Italian flag in the background. Italy's far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who leads a governing coalition with Berlusconi's Forza Italia, visited the 86-year-old on Sunday and said afterwards that he was in an "excellent mood" and was working "tirelessly".
Berlusconi shaped public life in Italy for decades in various roles – not only as a politician, but also as a media mogul and long-time owner of the AC Milan football club. Between 1994 and 2011, he served as prime minister three times. Last September, he was elected to the Senate in the parliamentary elections.
However, his career has also been marked by various scandals. The controversial politician had to stand trial for several alleged economic and corruption offences and his role in the infamous bunga bunga sex parties. In 2013, he was convicted of tax fraud.
In recent years, Berlusconi has had to deal with serious health problems on several occasions. In 2020, the 86-year-old was treated in hospital for several weeks for a corona infection.
dop/AFP