Silvio Berlusconi: Hundreds pay closing respects to former Italian prime minister in Milan
From cruise ship crooner to Italian prime minister, Berlusconi’s legacy is as difficult as it’s divisive
Crowds of Berlusconi supporters gathered early at Milan Cathedral.
Many of them had been waving Forza Italia flags, his political celebration.
All of them had come to mourn a person they thought had been an amazing Italian and a tremendous chief of the nation.
But the person – who began as a cruise ship crooner, went on to turn into a property and media baron and thrice prime minister – was massively controversial.
Unsurprisingly, his legacy is as difficult as it’s divisive.
Silvio Berlusconi was a singular political expertise and could be a forerunner for proper wing populists to come back.
He was the primary post-modern politician. He did not supply voters a boring programme of insurance policies, he supplied one thing much more mercurial – himself.
Using his ability as an orator and his media energy he created a cult of character and have become an electoral juggernaut.
Often embroiled in authorized battles he railed in opposition to elites, portraying himself as an outsider and a sufferer.
In demise although – afforded a state funeral and a nationwide day of mourning – he has cemented his place, for higher or worse, as a towering determine of the political institution.
Certainly essentially the most influential determine the nation has seen since Benito Mussolini.