Italian ex-PM Silvio Berlusconi admitted to ICU for cardiac problem

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was hospitalized in an intensive care unit Wednesday for a reported cardiac issue.

Berlusconi, 86, was admitted to San Raffaele hospital in Milan. The ex-PM was in the ICU’s cardiac unit, sources told Reuters.

Italian news outlets reported that Berlusconi had been suffering shortness of breath but his afternoon condition was stable.

Berlusconi has suffered from a number of health problems in recent years. He had heart surgery in 2016 and spent 10 days hospitalized with COVID-19 in 2020. He said afterwards that it was the toughest illness he’d ever faced — a meaningful statement from someone who also beat prostate cancer earlier in life.

Last year, Berlusconi was hospitalized for a urinary tract infection, and he makes regular visits to the Milan facility where he was admitted Wednesday.

Berlusconi remains a powerful, if somewhat symbolic, figure in Italian politics. He’s a member of the Italian senate and leads the right-wing Forza Italia party, which he founded. Forza Italia is part of the ruling coalition, though Berlusconi does not have a role in the government.

Berlusconi served three separate terms as prime minister, most recently from 2008 to 2011. He was kicked out of parliament in 2013 after he was convicted of tax fraud. But the ban was lifted in 2018, and Berlusconi was elected as a senator in September 2022.

The ex-prime minister was also a notorious playboy who was long accused of paying underage prostitutes and then bribing them to lie about it in court. He was acquitted on those charges in February 2023.

More recently, Berlusconi caused a headache for the Italian government by backing his longtime pal Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

With News Wire Services