State funeral to be held for former Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi

A state funeral would be held for former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at Milan Cathedral on Wednesday afternoon.

Berlusconi died on Monday at the age of 86.

President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni are expected to be among those attending the service.

In addition to politicians from Italy and abroad, thousands of people are expected to gather in the central cathedral square in front of the church.

Berlusconi was a controversial real estate, media and football mogul who dominated Italian public life, reinventing himself as a conservative politician prone to public gaffes and run-ins with the law.

He was Italy’s longest-serving prime minister, with terms in office in 1994, 2001-2006 and 2008-2011.

Berlusconi’s rise to power was meteoric, winning his first elections in 1994 at the helm of a new party named after a football slogan, Forza Italia, or Go Italy.

He resigned in disgrace in 2011, at the height of a national debt crisis that risked destabilising the entire eurozone.

Matteo Salvini of the far-right League replaced him as the leader of Italy’s conservative bloc, and his Forza Italia party slid into irrelevance.

Until its return in 2022 as a minor coalition party in Meloni’s right-wing government.

His death left Italy’s ruling coalition in a precarious position.