Italy: in Milan, a last tribute to Silvio Berlusconi at his state funeral

Thousands of people paid their final respects Wednesday to Silvio Berlusconi, who died Monday at the age of 86 of leukemia, at a state funeral organized in the presence of the country's top politicians and a crowd devoted to his cause.

Silvio Berlusconi's coffin carried outside Milan's Duomo on June 14. © ANDREAS SOLARO / AFP

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With our special envoy in Milan, Eric Sénanque

It was to applause that Silvio Berlusconi's coffin arrived in front of the Duomo in front of which giant screens had been installed for the crowd. Nearly 9,000 people, admirers or nostalgic of the Cavaliere gathered to pay their last respects.

► Read also: Italy: Silvio Berlusconi, the unsinkable Cavaliere, is dead

Among them, there is Gaia, 18, shirt of the Monza club on his shoulders, a team bought in 2018 by Berlusconi. "He was the president of my club and I had the honor of knowing him, he will remain as a person always cheerful, who always made jokes. When Monza went up to Serie A he was with us, laughing. I felt it was a duty to be here to say a final goodbye.

It represents 30 years of our country's history.

The crowd at Silvio Berlusconi's funeral

RFI

The entire political class in Milan

In the cathedral, the entire Italian political family of yesterday and today. On the side of the Italian government, in addition to Giorgia Meloni and his two deputy prime ministers, Matteo Salvini and Antonio Tajani, the number two of his party Forza Italia. The President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella was present. Former heads of government Matteo Renzi, Paolo Gentiloni and Mario Draghi also made the trip to Milan. So many political opponents in their time, the one who was four times President of the Council, gathered for this state funeral. The political heirs of Forza Italia, the party he launched in 1994 to take power and which is now part of the government coalition, were of course present.

«

Forza Italia is made up of values that he taught us, values that we will bring to life and that Italy needs: that of being good Europeans, liberals in economics, but also defending Christian values. For him, we will move forward, and united," said Alessandro Cattaeno, Forza Italia MP and number 2 in the party. Among the few foreign dignitaries were the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, Iraqi President Abdel Latif Rashid and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

On this day of national mourning, the Duomo Square sometimes felt like a football stadium. Silvio Berlusconi's coffin has returned to the historic villa of the Cavaliere where his ashes are expected to rest in a mausoleum.

«It is an exceptional person who disappears»

Present at the funeral, journalist Mario Giordano, a figure of Italian television who works for Mediaset, a channel belonging to the group owned by the Cavaliere, testifies: "It is a day of pain because it is first of all an exceptional person who disappears. He is the one who created the television for which I have been working for more than 20 years with maximum freedom. A person who has changed Italian society, whether through media, construction or sport. But it is especially sad for those who knew him because he was someone who knew how to put people at the center when he spoke with them, from the last employee of Mediaset to the chairman of the board. That's what I'm really going to miss. He had that empathy that even his opponents recognized. And I think right now everyone who knew him feels a big emptiness. If I have to recall a memory, it is when I lost my father. He was president of Mediaset, and he was the first person to call me."

► Also listen: International guest - Death of Silvio Berlusconi: "In 20 or 30 years, he will be seen as the man who did nothing"

AC Milan supporter, at Silvio Berlusconi's funeral, June 14, 2023. AFP - GABRIEL BOUYS

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• Italy
• Silvio Berlusconi