Goodbye time. Italy is preparing to honor the memory of Silvio Berlusconi one last time at a state funeral with great fanfare this Wednesday, June 14. Thousands of people, including the peninsula’s top politicians but few foreign dignitaries, are expected. The official funeral of the billionaire, who died on Monday at the age of 86 from leukemia, will begin at 3 p.m. (1 p.m. GMT) at Milan Cathedral.
The ceremony must be broadcast on giant screens positioned on the famous square of the Lombard capital and the forecourt of the cathedral to allow all those who cannot enter to follow it.
The European Commission will be represented by its Commissioner for the Economy, the Italian Paolo Gentiloni, former chief executive in Rome.
This state funeral, provided for by protocol, will be accompanied by a day of national mourning, a first for a former Prime Minister who is not, however, to the taste of all Italians.
“The state funeral is planned and it is right, but the national mourning for a divisive person like Silvio Berlusconi seems to me an inappropriate choice”, thus expressed Rosy Bindi, former left-wing minister in the Prodi II government. (2006-2008) on public radio.
Andrea Crisanti, senator of the Democratic Party (PD, center-left), also made known his opposition.
“He had no respect for the state when he evaded taxes,” he said, recalling Cavaliere’s final 2013 sentencing to four years in prison – reduced by amnesty to an adjusted year – , in the tax evasion case involving his Mediaset empire.
The journey of this eternal ghost, whose political death has been wrongly announced many times, merges with the Italian history of the last thirty years. He was also one of the richest men on the peninsula with a fortune valued in early April by Forbes at 6.4 billion euros.
Abroad, he was best known for the string of scandals in which he was involved, his legendary blunders, his repeated trials and his diplomatic stunts.
His disappearance has sparked reactions around the world: a “true friend” for Russian President Vladimir Putin, “a major figure in contemporary Italy” for his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, passing through the White House, the UN and the world of sport.
Father of five children from two marriages, he was a grandfather several times.