The End of Il Cavaliere

Dr de Lauzun muses on the life and career of 'il Cavaliere', Silvio Berlusconi, who passed away on Monday at the age of 86. He'd been a huge influence on Italian politics for decades.

From The European Conservative

By Hélène de Lauzun

Like the cat with nine lives, the Cavaliere had a thick skin. Although he was gradually withdrawing from politics, he knew how to use his considerable influence to weigh on Italian political life as a figure of authority.

A few days ago, news arrived of the sudden deterioration in the health of Silvio Berlusconi, former Italian prime minister and president of the Forza Italia party, also a member of the government coalition currently in power with Giorgia Meloni. The man nicknamed ‘il Cavaliere’ (The Knight) passed away in Milan Monday morning, June 12th, at the age of 86.

The loss of this extraordinary personality will be keenly felt in Italy where he occupied a very special place in the world of business, sport, and, of course, politics. Since the birth of the Italian Republic in 1946, he had the honour of serving as prime minister longer than anyone else, and acquired the status of being one of Italy’s richest men. In 2021, on the strength of his solid and unassailable popularity, he considered running to become President of the Republic (to succeed Sergio Mattarella), before giving up. 

The entire Italian political class, even his former enemies, now pay tribute to him.

Born in Milan in 1936, Silvio Berlusconi showed a keen business sense from an early age, which was recognised by his school friends to whom he sold his services, offering to write their homework for a few lire. After the war, and after graduating in law, he began to build his fortune by engaging in profitable property deals in Milan, at a time when Italians from the Mezzogiorno were flocking to the Lombard capital in search of work and cheap accommodation. Little by little, he built up a veritable empire, which earned him the title, ‘Knight of Labour’, awarded to him by the President of the Republic Giovanni Leone in 1977. 

After real estate, at the end of the 1970s, Berlusconi moved into another field that would bring him great success: the press and television, at the crucial time when the Italian state was giving up its monopoly. In 1979, he became the majority shareholder in the daily Il Giornale. He set about creating a multitude of small television channels, first in Italy, then throughout Europe, with the launch of La Cinq in France in 1986, followed by Tele 5 in Germany and Spain.

Real estate, the press, banking, insurance, financial products—nothing escaped his notice, and his empire grew until he was able to make one of his greatest acquisitions: the purchase, in 1986, of the prestigious football club Associazione Calcio Milan, or AC Milan, with which he won a number of tournaments in Italy and abroad.

His temperament, his glibness, and his formidable business acumen clearly contributed to his success, but no less important was the vast network of support—particularly political—that he had built up over the years. Although some of his opponents accused him of having benefited from Mafia protection, he escaped the major Mani pulite (Clean Hands) operation aimed at combating the corruption from which Italy suffers at all levels. 

In 1994, buoyed by his image as a successful man, he announced his intention to stand in parliamentary elections for the first time, on a platform of selflessness. He had no political past—just a love of Italy and contempt for communism. He then launched his own party, Forza Italia, which enabled him to win power and add another string to his bow. His personal fortune and his position as a media magnate undoubtedly helped him in his bid for power. It was he who laid the foundations of a broad right-wing coalition, allying himself with both the Northern League, which at the time was demanding autonomy for Northern Italy and the Italian Social Movement (MSI), a conservative party born in the South and whose origins date back to post-Fascist Italy.

Political life is full of twists and turns. Silvio Berlusconi lost power several times, then regained it, always relying on this constantly reconstituted coalition: from 1994-1995, then from 2001 to 2006, and finally from 2008 to 2011. Regardless of his political successes or failures, he retained an unprecedented level of popularity, maintained thanks to jovial quips that Italians love—like when he explained that he liked Obama because he was “handsome and tanned.”

The pro-business policies he introduced once in power greatly benefited his own companies, which flourished. His opponents denounced his ‘privatisation of power’ as motivated by personal interest, but, holding the reins of power, any charges of corruption were toothless and he remained immune from investigations into his business dealings that would have otherwise tainted his authority and reputation.

In 2009, he became embroiled in the justice system when the Noemi Letizia scandal broke, named after a young girl from Naples who was courted by Silvio Berlusconi when she was still a minor. In the eyes of the Italian public, the Cavaliere’s image was severely compromised, as more and more people—particularly his wife—denounced his antics and excesses. Vice scandals began multiplying at a time when Italy was being weakened on the international stage by its debt. 

From 2014 onwards, Berlusconi and his Forza Italia party began a long descent into the political abyss, a slide that benefited other members of the right-wing coalition: first Matteo Salvini’s Lega, then the movement now represented by Giorgia Meloni, Fratelli d’Italia, heir to the MSI. Serious health problems—heart problems followed by open-heart surgery—forced him to take a back seat.

But like the cat with nine lives, the Cavaliere had a thick skin. Although he gradually withdrew from politics, he knew how to use his considerable influence to weigh in on Italian political life as a figure of authority. His party, Forza Italia, might have lost electoral weight, but it continued to play a role in the new right-wing coalition formed around Giorgia Meloni for the 2022 elections. His media appearances, which were becoming rarer, continued to be scrutinised and analysed. At the time of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, he stirred up controversy with openly hostile remarks about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and highlighted his personal “friendship” with Vladimir Putin, thereby undermining the discourse of his ally Meloni, who instead played the card of unconditional support for Ukraine. 

In May 2023, he had to be hospitalised again for lung problems. A month later, on June 12th, he died in Milan hospital as a result of leukaemia, which had been affecting him for several months. A major page in Italian political life was turned with the death of this key figure who, to some Italians, appeared to have been immortal.