Italy's Berlusconi has leukaemia, but not yet acute

ROME — Italian former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is currently in intensive care, is suffering from leukaemia and a lung infection, doctors said on Thursday.

The 86-year-old media mogul and senator, who has been in and out of hospital in recent years, was admitted Wednesday to the intensive care cardiac unit at Milan's San Raffaele Hospital after suffering respiratory problems.

"Berlusconi is currently hospitalised in intensive care for treatment of a lung infection" and suffers from "chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia", a rare type of blood cancer, doctors said in a statement.

The magnate — a controversial, larger-than-life figure who elicits either admiration or disdain from Italians — has been dubbed "the immortal" for his longevity in politics.

He is currently a senator and leader of the right-wing Forza Italia Party.

Chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia (CMML), which affects mainly older adults, starts in blood-forming cells of the bone marrow and goes on to invade the blood.

Berlusconi's cancer was in a "persistent chronic phase" and had not yet turned into "acute leukaemia", the doctors said.

"We're all very worried. I hope he has the strength in him to resist," said Deputy Culture Minister Vittorio Sgarbi, Berlusconi's close friend, reacting to the news.

As close family members arrived at the hospital, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said he had spoken to Berlusconi's doctor, who told him "his condition is stable".

He also said Berlusconi was feeling well enough to be making phone calls.

'The country I love' 

The billionaire spent four days last month at the same hospital before being discharged last Thursday.

"I have already started working again... ready and determined to commit myself, as I have always done, to the country I love," he said in a message posted on social networks on Friday.

And on Sunday, he posted a photo of himself grinning in front of a vast lawn of tulips in his villa in Arcore, in northern Italy.

After dominating Italian politics for decades, the "Cavaliere" — as he is widely known in Italy — now appears physically diminished on the rare occasions he is seen in public.

Long gone are the days of his infamous erotic "bunga bunga" parties with young starlets, which he has always insisted were nothing more than elegant dinners.

Forza Italia is a member of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's right-wing coalition government, although the party attracted only about 10 per cent of voters.

Meloni tweeted her "sincere and affectionate wish for a speedy recovery" on Wednesday, while Matteo Salvini, whose League party is also a coalition member, tweeted "Forza Silvio, Italy is waiting for you!"

Berlusconi was in hospital for 11 days for COVID-related pneumonia in September 2020, after contracting the virus while on holiday in Sardinia. He described it as "perhaps the most difficult ordeal of my life".

The following year, COVID-related complications caused a series of hospital stays.

The one-time cruise ship crooner had open-heart surgery in 2016 and an operation on his intestine three years later.

Berlusconi served as prime minister three times after entering politics in 1994, and for millions of Italians he represents a golden age of the Italian economy and the self-made man.

Despite a series of sex scandals and court cases which threatened to tarnish his image — including being convicted for tax evasion in 2012 — many Italians still have a soft spot in their hearts for him.