Italy’s controversial former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has died.

The 86-year-old senator and leader of the Forza Italia party, whose string of financial and sex scandals made him the most polarising figure in modern Italy, was admitted to hospital on Friday.

He had been discharged from hospital last month where he was treated for over six weeks for a lung infection linked to chronic leukaemia.

Mr Berlusconi’s death brings an end to one of the most colourful and controversial political careers of recent times, with the scandal-hit prime minister famous for his notorious “bunga bunga” parties.

The sex parties, which involved prostitutes, caused a major political scandal in Italy.

Mr Berlusconi was prime minister when he was formally convicted of paying Karima El Mahroug, known by the stage name Ruby Rubacuori (Italian for “Ruby the Heartstealer”), for sexual services between February and May 2010 when she was under the age of 18.

He was later found not guilty on appeal.

Mr Berlusconi, well known for his brash and ebullient personality, led Italy three times from 1994-1995, 2001-2006 and 2008-2011.

He stepped down as prime minister for the last time in 2011 as Italy came close to a Greece-style debt crisis, facing several scandals.

A decade ago he was banned from holding public office over a tax fraud conviction stemming from dealings in his media empire, but the ban was lifted in 2018.

He returned to the Italian Senate after a national election last September.

Last year he triggered uproar with comments about Russian President Vladimir Putin when he boasted the two had exchanged birthday greetings and blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the war.

With an unassailable self-confidence and a sharp entrepreneurial spirit, Mr Berlusconi built Italy’s largest commercial TV network.

He also gained an international profile as the owner of the football club AC Milan before he entered politics in 1994 after the previous political class was brought down by a corruption scandal.

Mr Berlusconi used his wealth and media prowess to launch himself into politics in 1994, upending traditional parties in a way that another property mogul, Donald Trump, later did when he was elected US president in 2016.

His many critics say he used his power primarily to protect his own business interests, pointing to Italy’s weak economic record, hidebound bureaucracy and unchecked corruption during his lengthy stints in government.

Mr Berlusconi himself said he only entered politics to halt the left.

“Politics was never my passion. It made me lose a lot of time and energy. If I entered the ring, it was just to prevent
the communists from taking power,” he told Chi magazine in an interview to mark his 80th birthday in 2016.

Berlusconi’s recent health troubles

The former Italian leader was treated in intensive care at Milan’s San Raffaele Hospital in April for a lung infection related to leukaemia, his doctors said at the time.

They added he had chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia – a rare type of blood cancer – that was not acute.

The billionaire media tycoon suffered several bouts of ill health in recent years, including contracting COVID in 2020.

After being discharged from a 10-day hospital stay, he said the disease had been “insidious” and was the most dangerous challenge he had ever faced.

He has had a pacemaker for years, underwent heart surgery to replace an aortic valve in 2016 and had overcome prostate cancer.