Farewell to the great entrepreneur, political leader, prime minister, patron of the super-winning Milan. But, also, to the man of power who ended up on trial several times, on multiple charges, from tax evasion to ties to the mafia.
For better or for worse, Silvio Berlusconi marked an entire era of Italian history.
A life, that of the Knight, always in the spotlight, never private, always public, by his own will or by force.
Born in 1936, born on 29 September (same day as Andrij Shevchenko, one of the many champions he brought to the Rossoneri), Berlusconi - Salesian training, law degree, apprenticeship as a salesman and singer - became Berlusconi in the 1970s, when, almost forty years old and rampant, he launched himself into the construction business, building a number of avant-garde residential centers on the outskirts of Milan, such as Milano Due, still considered a "model district" today.
Then the "war of Segrate" with Carlo De Benedetti for Mondadori and the plunge, headlong, into private broadcasters and the birth of Fininvest and Mediaset, with which he revolutionized - also in this case between lights and shadows - the world of publishing , television and communication, making ruthless competition with the rules of the state and with the state itself.
At the end of the eighties, the beginning of the adventure as president of Milan, with large investments and equally great victories, some unparalleled, in Italy and in the world.
However, the fateful year was 1994, with the "descent into the field" in politics, after Tangentopoli, to pick up the pieces of moderatism and conservatism, strengthened by the dissolution of the Christian Democrats and the other satellite parties, because "Italy is the country I love" and to "not leave it in the hands of the communists".
From the famous ad on TV, sitting in front of the library of his residence with photos of his children, the political history of the Knight is known, indeed arch-known: four times prime minister (1994/1995- 2001/2005-2005/2006 and 2008/2011), at the head of "his" Forza Italia, for years collector and driving force of the center-right, as well as champion of the "people of freedom" and liberalism. But, at the same time, also "public enemy number one" for the left (and not only), due to the laws accused of being ad personam, the "liberticidal" measures, the "Bulgarian edicts".
Known, indeed arch-known, are also his repeated judicial vicissitudes and all that they have brought with them, even outside the courtrooms: accusations and counter-accusations, attacks on magistrates, street demonstrations, detractors and his supporters . A man - also - capable of splitting the country for years, because Berlusconi "either you love him or you hate him". And someone – Massimo Tartaglia – came, fueled by mental problems, to hate him to the point of throwing a statue of the Duomo in Milan in his face in 2009.
In 2010 another fateful date: the explosion of the Ruby case, the "granddaughter of Mubarak" that she was not, the last in a long series of judicial troubles (on Wikipedia there is a specific entry on Berlusconi and Justice), which led to the divorce from his wife Veronica Lario, the scandal of the parties in his Villa of Arcore, the revelations about the entertainment with the "olgettine" (which he always defined as "elegant dinners") and the subsequent trials, which reached the ter (finished last February with the 'absolution).
A separate chapter of his biography should be dedicated (in addition to the jokes, punctually told at every rally or gathering of the people) to the international stages, where, between politics, crises and gaffes, the Knight has never lacked - as always, the rest, in life - to be talked about: personal friendship with Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush, the agreement between the USA and Russia at Pratica di Mare always claimed as a medal, the welcome (with controversy) from pasha reserved for Gaddafi on his visit to Rome, the white bandana sported in Sardinia while he was in the company of ex premier Blair, the "cuckoo" for Angela Merkel. And then the "nice and tanned" Barack Obama, calling whom, too loudly, during a summit, even irritated Queen Elizabeth and meeting his wife who indulged in all too eloquent facial expressions, which have become, among the 'other, the basis for one of the first viral memes in the history of social media.
The list of "when Berlusconi made the whole world talk about himself" could be endless. And it arrives, if you really want to find a terminus ad quem, in very recent times, with the incendiary statements about Volodymyr Zelensky, presented almost as responsible for the Russian aggression in Ukraine. But after all, even now, in the most tragic moment, the whole world is talking about him, with a capital L, as only the faithful Emilio Fede could pronounce him (the joke is by Paolo Rossi).
The list of interludes, quarrels, clashes, television and public, which saw him as the protagonist, could also be endless. To remember the main ones, simple quotation marks are enough, easily associated by every Italian citizen with images, moments, situations engraved in the memory of the people: "Contain yourself!", "What are you doing for me?", "More beautiful than intelligent", "I swear on head of my children”, “Mr. Schulz…” and so on and so forth.
In recent years many have advised him to retire to private life. And many - opponents, but also allies - hoped that he would. That he devoted himself full time to being a grandfather, enjoying, away from the spotlight, the many grandchildren that his five children gave him. That he savored the moments of love with the (young) woman who has been by his side in recent years, Marta Fascina, perhaps in his favorite "buen retiro", Villa Certosa, in Sardinia. Or that he concentrated exclusively on Monza, his second football love, who arrived under his presidency, in his first historic adventure in Serie A.
He (alla Fede) instead chose to remain in the limelight until the end, even with Forza Italia weakened in the polls, because, he claimed during the umpteenth, and his last, electoral campaign for the regional elections in Lombardy: "We are proud to represent the liberal centre, the Catholic centre, the guarantor centre, the pro-European and Atlantic centre, we are proud to represent in Italy the European People's Party, the largest political family in Europe, the moderates of Europe alternative to the left" .
Now the center-right has been orphaned of its Knight and Italy of a character, in any case and in spite of everything, exceptional. Exceptional in the sense of "one who derogates from the rules". Those rules that Berlusconi has always tried to change, revolutionize, bend, even to his advantage.
Certainly, a controversial figure, cross for many, delight for many. Simply: the mirror of Italy's contradictions in recent decades.
Roberto Gervaso said of him: "Milanese, law graduate, knight of labour, Silvio Berlusconi is a self-made man, and of the self-made man he has the cunning, the foolishness, the outbursts, the mistrust. It didn't start from the needle, but almost. Causier icastic and sanguine, he is a born fighter, at ease in any competition. Of course, he is one who never stops, and who never makes those who have the good fortune – or the misfortune – to stand by him stop. Where it wants to go, I don't know. And maybe he doesn't know it too."
Luigi Barnaba Frigoli
