Italy ex-PM Silvio Berlusconi says he is ready to get back at work after serious illness

Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi on Saturday gave his first public address since being hospitalised a month ago. Delivering a video message to his Forza Italia party members, Berlusconi said he was ready to get back to work.

“Here I am, here for you, wearing a shirt and jacket for the first time in a month," said the 86-year-old billionaire media mogul in a pre-recorded video.

"I never stopped, not even in the past few weeks. worked on the party's new structure and I'm ready to return to work with you and fight alongside you our fights for freedom," he added.

The party members watching the 20-minute video clapped enthusiastically at the end while some could be seen wiping away a tear or two.

According to Italian media reports, the video was filmed on Friday after Berlusconi was not allowed to leave the hospital by doctors and relatives as he would have tried to attend the party's two-day convention in Milan.

Having been diagnosed with persistent leukaemia, Berlusconi was admitted to Milan’s San Raffaele Hospital on April 5. He spent two weeks in the intensive care unit before being moved to a general ward in mid-April.

Berlusconi's health has deteriorated in recent years. In 2016, he had open heart surgery and three years later, an intestine surgery. He was hospitalised for Covid-related pneumonia in September 2020. Later, he developed complications linked to Covid and was admitted several times the next year. According to reports, he also had prostate cancer.

Berlusconi's party

However, despite being a pale shadow of his former self, Berlusconi, nicknamed Il Cavaliere (The Knight) has managed to remain in the news cycle, year after year, despite last serving as the prime minister in 2011.

Berlusconi founded Italy's centre-right party Forza Italia in the summer of 1994 to beat the 'communists'. His party pioneered the populist brand of politics in the European country and propelled him to the higher echelons of the bureaucracy.

In 2011, he stepped down as the PM. However, to this day, he leads his party and is an elected senator. Currently, his party is a junior member of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's coalition government.

Earlier this year, Berlusconi was cleared of bribing young showgirls to lie about his notoriously infamous "bunga bunga" parties.

(With inputs from agencies)

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