Berlusconi: one year after his death, the political legacy and future of Forza Italia

A ceremony in Arcore, the commemoration in Parliament, family, friends and Mediaset's remembrance on the unified networks: this is how Silvio Berlusconi will be celebrated one year after his death.   The FI group leader, Maurizio Gasparri, will be the one to remember Berlusconi in the Chamber. A sign of closeness that has a particular value: it was precisely the Council of Immunities of that branch of Parliament that voted, in 2013, for his disqualification as senator due to the Severino law applied after his conviction for tax fraud, in the Mediaset trial. A disgrace that the Azzurro patriarch never accepted, not even when he returned to sit in the Chamber, as elected, on 13 October 2022.

Lab 24 / I Berlusconi, the legacy and the future

 Four-time Prime Minister, founder of Finvest and Mediaset, former president of Milan, and creator of Forza Italia, Berlusconi died on 12 June 2023 after his health suddenly deteriorated and he was again admitted to Milan's San Raffarele hospital. He was 86 years old and had been battling chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia for some time, the latest in a long line of diseases he had no intention of giving up, but which was fatal to him. He had been discharged from hospital on 19 May, after 45 days spent treating pneumonia and kidney problems and continuing treatment for leukaemia. He had returned home on 9 June. And nothing pointed to the collapse that instead occurred in the morning. He had worked to the last on the reorganisation of the party in view of the forthcoming European elections and had also spoken about it in the video sent to the Forza Italia convention in May.

As President of the Council of Ministers, Berlusconi was entitled by law to the State funeral, which was held on 14 June in Milan Cathedral, officiated by the archbishop of Milan Mario Delpini, in the presence of all the high offices of State, of politicians of various parties and other personalities from Italy and abroad, with a total attendance of 2,300 people in the cathedral and another 15,000 in the square in front of it. By decision of the Council of Ministers, on the day of the funeral national mourning was called, not without controversy, with suspension of parliamentary work for the entire week. "Silvio Berlusconi was certainly a politician, he was certainly a businessman, he was certainly a figure in the limelight of notoriety, but in this moment of farewell and prayer, what can we say about Silvio Berlusconi? He was a man: a desire for life, a desire for love, a desire for joy. And now we celebrate the mystery of fulfilment. This is what I can say about Silvio Berlusconi. He is a man and now he meets God,' said the archbishop of Milan Monsignor Mario Delpini in his homily in the cathedral on the occasion of the funeral.

Berlusconi left his last will and testament in the form of a holographic testament, written several times on 'villa San Martino' letterhead and deposited at a Milanese notary's office, where it was opened on 6 July 2023. In the will, the key lines of division of the empire emerge. A treasure estimated by Forbes at 6.4 billion, which together with Fininvest contains a real estate portfolio of villas and flats, and then yachts, works of art, investments and cash. The keys of control of Fininvest are handed over to the children Marina and Pier Silvio. But Berlusconi guarantees Barbara, Eleonora and Luigi 40% of his assets and gives 100 million each to his brother Paolo Berlusconi and his partner Marta Fascina and 30 million to his friend Marcello Dell'Utri. The will reveals the moment when the Cavaliere began to worry about the future after him. The fate of Fininvest was decided in 2006, when, in Arcore, Berlusconi in his own hand sealed the heart of the future division of the empire: "I leave the available in equal parts to my children Marina and Pier Silvio. I leave everything else in equal parts to my five children Marina, Pier Silvio, Barbara, Eleonora and Luigi'. The next two additions, dated 2020 and 2022, mark the years in which the Cavaliere's health seemed to deteriorate. Here Berlusconi does not forget the three people closest to him, his late partner Marta Fascina, his brother Paolo and his fraternal friend Marcello Dell'Utri. He is thinking of a donation for them: 100 million to the first two and 30 million to Dell'Utri: 'For the good I have wished them,' is the dedication, 'and for what they have wished me.