Silvio Berlusconi

Silvio Berlusconi (born. Four times served as chairman of the Council of Ministers of Italy. He is the first multibillionaire to become the head of government of a European state.

There are many interesting facts in Berlusconi's biography, which we will talk about in this article.

So, before you is a short biography of Silvio Berlusconi.

Biography of Berlusconi

Silvio Berlusconi was born on September 29, 1936 in Milan. He grew up and was raised in a devout Catholic family.

His father, Luigi Berlusconi, worked in the banking sector, and his mother, Rosella, was at one time the secretary of the director of the Pirelli company, which produced tires.

Childhood and youth

Silvio's childhood years fell on the Second World War (1939-1945), as a result of which he repeatedly witnessed heavy shelling.

The Berlusconi family lived in one of the most disadvantaged areas of Milan, where crime and vagrancy flourished. It is worth noting that Luigi was an anti-fascist, as a result of which he was forced to hide with his family in neighboring Switzerland.

Due to his political views, it was dangerous for a man to appear in his homeland. After some time, Silvio lived with his mother in the village with his grandparents. After school, he was looking for a part-time job, like many of his peers, by the way.

The boy took on any job, including picking potatoes and milking cows. The difficult wartime taught him to work and the ability to survive in different circumstances. After the end of the war, the head of the family returned from Switzerland.

And although Berlusconi's parents experienced serious financial difficulties, they did everything possible to give their children a good education. At the age of 12, Silvio entered the Catholic Lyceum, which was distinguished by strict discipline and pedagogical exactingness.

Even then, the teenager began to show his entrepreneurial talent. In exchange for small money or sweets, he helped fellow students with their lessons. After graduating from the Lyceum, he continued his education at the University of Milan in the legal department.

At this time, biographies Berlusconi continued to do homework for fellow students for money, as well as write term papers for them. At the same time, his creative talent woke up in him.

Silvio Berlusconi worked as a photographer, was a presenter of concerts, played the double bass, sang on cruise ships and worked as a guide. In 1961 he managed to graduate with honors.

Politics

Berlusconi entered the political arena at the age of 57. He became the head of the right-wing Forward Italy! Party, which sought to achieve a free market in the country, as well as social equality, which was based on freedom and justice.

As a result, Silvio Berlusconi managed to set a fantastic record in world political history: his party, just 60 days after its founding, became the winner of the parliamentary elections in Italy in 1994.

At the same time, Silvio was entrusted with the post of prime minister of the state. After that, he plunged headlong into big politics, participating in business meetings with world leaders. In the fall of the same year, Berlusconi and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation.

In a couple of years, the rating of the "Forward, Italy!" fell, as a result of which she was defeated in the elections. This led to the fact that Silvio went into opposition to the current government.

In subsequent years, the confidence of Berlusconi's compatriots in his faction began to grow again. At the beginning of 2001, the campaign began for elections to parliament and a new prime minister.

In his program, the man promised to reduce taxes, increase pensions, create new jobs, and carry out effective reforms in education, health care and the judicial system.

In case of failure to fulfill the promises, Silvio Berlusconi pledged to voluntarily resign. As a result, his coalition - "House of Freedoms" won the elections, and he himself again headed the Italian government, which operated until April 2005.

During this period of his biography, Silvio still openly declared his sympathy for the United States and everything that was associated with this superpower. However, he was negative about the war in Iraq. Subsequent actions by the Prime Minister increasingly disappointed the Italian people.

And if in 2001 Berlusconi's rating was about 45%, then by the end of his term it had halved. He was criticized for the low development of the economy and a number of other actions. This led to the victory of the center-left coalition in the 2006 elections.

A couple of years later, the parliament was dissolved. Silvio again ran for election and won. At that time, Italy was going through hard times, experiencing serious financial difficulties. However, the politician assured his compatriots that he would be able to rectify the situation.

Having come to power, Berlusconi set to work, but soon his policy again began to cause a flurry of criticism from the people. At the end of 2011, after several high-profile scandals that triggered legal proceedings, as well as along with major economic difficulties, he resigned under pressure from the Italian president.

After his resignation, Silvio avoided meeting with journalists and ordinary Italians, who were gleeful at the news of his departure. An interesting fact is that Vladimir Putin called the Italian president "one of the last Mohicans of European politics."

Over the years of his biography, Berlusconi managed to amass a huge fortune, estimated at billions of dollars. He became an insurance magnate, a bank and media owner, and a majority shareholder in Fininvest Corporation.

For 30 years (1986-2016) Silvio was the president of the Milan football club, which during this time has repeatedly won European cups. In 2005, the oligarch's capital was estimated at $ 12 billion!

Scandals

The businessman's activities aroused great interest among Italian law enforcement agencies. In total, more than 60 court cases were opened against him, which related to corruption and sex scandals.

In 1992, Berlusconi was suspected of collaborating with the Sicilian mafia Cosa Nostra, but after 5 years the case was closed. In the new millennium, 2 major cases were opened against him related to abuse of office and sexual relations with underage prostitutes.

At that time, the press published an interview with Naomi Letizia, who claimed to have fun at the Villa Silvio. Reporters called numerous parties with girls nothing but orgies. It is fair to say that there were reasons for this.

In 2012, Italian judges sentenced Berlusconi to a 4-year prison term. This verdict was made on the basis of tax fraud committed by a politician. At the same time, due to his age, he was allowed to serve a sentence under house arrest and in community service.

An interesting fact is that since 1994 the billionaire has spent about 700 million euros on the services of lawyers!

Personal life

The first official wife of Silvio Berlusconi was Carla Elvira Dell'Oglio. In this marriage, the couple had a girl, Maria Elvira, and a boy, Persilvio.

After 15 years of marriage, in 1980, the man began to look after the actress Veronica Lario, whom he married 10 years later. It is curious that the couple actually lived together for more than 30 years, having parted in 2014. In this union, the son of Luigi and 2 daughters, Barbara and Eleanor, were born.

After that, Berlusconi had a relationship with model Francesca Pascale, but the matter never came to a wedding. Many believe that over the years of his personal biography, he had many more women. The oligarch speaks Italian, English and French.

Silvio Berlusconi today

In the summer of 2016, Silvio suffered a heart attack and had an aortic valve transplant. A couple of years after judicial rehabilitation, he again received the right to run for any government office.

In 2019, Berlusconi underwent bowel obstruction surgery. He has accounts on various social networks, including an Instagram page that has over 300,000 followers.