Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi treated in Milan for heart problem
FORMER Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been hospitalised in Milan with a heart problem this morning.
But a spokeswoman for his party Forza Italia said his condition is not life threatening.
The 79-year-old centre-right leader was Prime Minister four times, stepping down for the final time in November 2011.
The AGI news agency reported: “His hospitalisation was scheduled, his doctors wanted to perform a series of tests after the slight discomfort he experienced Sunday night, which was neither serious nor worrying.”
San Raffaele hospital said in a statement that the hospitalisation was necessary after what it called a “cardiac deficiency”.
Berlusconi, who had a pacemaker implanted in a US hospital when he was 70, would undergo tests “in the next few days” to determine the proper therapy, the hospital statement said.
Spokeswoman Deborah Bergamini said he was expected to stay in theclinic in Milan for a few days of tests.
The AC Milan owner and media mogul is his country’s longest-serving post-war PM, but his time in office was mired by controversy.
In 2013 he was convicted of tax fraud, but was exempted from a prison term due to his age, and was instead sentenced to community service.
Berlusconi was expelled from the senate and barred from public office for six years, and has seen his political influence wane since he left government.
His preferred candidate for Rome mayor, real estate mogul Alfio Marchini, made such a poor in local elections this weekend that he was excluded in the first round.
The former cruise-ship crooner, now one of Italy’s richest men, has had continued legal woes, with a
court in southern Italy finding him guilty last year of bribing a senator.
He paid the politician to switch factions, in a move which helped topple a centre-left government in 2008.
Also last year Italy’s highest court confirmed an acquittal for Berlusconi, who enjoyed a close friendship with Tony Blair, on charges of abuse of office and paying for sex with a minor in the most sensational trial he faced.
He was accused of paying for sex with former teenage nightclub dancer Kharima El Mahroug, known by her stage name “Ruby the Heartstealer”, during “bunga bunga” erotic parties at his palatial home near Milan when he was prime minister in 2010.
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