According to media reports, Silvio Berlusconi, former Italian Prime Minister, is being treated in hospital for leukemia. The 86-year-old has already started chemotherapy, the news agencies Ansa and Adnkronos report, citing sources close to Berlusconi. The doctors administered the first dose against “a form of leukemia” on Wednesday evening. The newspaper “Corriere della Sera” had previously reported on leukemia. Berlusconi’s condition is stable, it said.
The right-wing populist politician, who headed four governments with interruptions from 1994 to 2011, was admitted to the San Raffaele clinic in Milan on Wednesday. He has been in intensive care ever since. Initially, it was said that Berlusconi had cardiovascular and respiratory problems. There were also reports of pneumonia. Official details were initially communicated neither by his party Forza Italia nor the family of the politician and media entrepreneur.
As can be seen in the pictures, his children Marina and Luigi and his brother Paolo arrived at the clinic in the northern Italian metropolis on Thursday. His siblings, children and his partner Marta Fascina visited the ex-head of government on Wednesday in the hospital. On leaving the clinic, the brother told journalists on Wednesday: “His condition is stable, he is a rock.”
Italy’s Foreign Minister and Deputy Head of Forza Italia Antonio Tajani spoke up on Thursday morning and said on Italian television that Berlusconi’s condition was stable and that he had had a “quiet night”. “We hope that the lion will come back soon. He never gives up,” said Tajani. “We remain optimistic.”
Political companions wished the chairman of the governing party Forza Italia a speedy recovery. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wished him “a speedy recovery from the bottom of my heart” on Wednesday. “Forza, Silvio!” She wrote on Twitter. When Berlusconi’s name was called out with the comment “absent” during a vote in the Senate, MPs erupted in applause.
Berlusconi was released from the Milan clinic only last Thursday after a four-day stay. Officially, there was talk of routine examinations at the time. According to reports, Berlusconi has already been treated for cardiovascular problems.
Berlusconi has been ill for years. At the end of 2020 he was suffering from corona and pneumonia, years before that he had to be hospitalized for a urinary tract infection. In 2016 he underwent heart surgery.
