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 social gathering.
All of them had come to mourn a person they thought had been an amazing Italian and an incredible chief of the nation.
But the person – who began as a cruise ship crooner, went on to change into a property and media baron and 4 instances prime minister – was massively controversial.
Unsurprisingly, his legacy is as difficult as it’s divisive.
Silvio Berlusconi was a singular political expertise and can 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 way more mercurial – himself.
Using his ability as an orator and his media energy he created a cult of persona 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 dying 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 probably the most influential determine the nation has seen since Benito Mussolini.
Source: information.sky.com”