ROME: Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister who reshaped Italy’s political and cultural landscape while fending off multiple legal and sex scandals, died on Monday aged 86.

The billionaire media mogul had been suffering from a rare type of blood cancer.

Mourners laid flowers and notes outside Villa San Martino, Berlus­coni’s home near Milan, with one reading simply “we will miss you”.

The government has declared a national day of mourning for Wednesday, when Berlusconi will have a state funeral in Milan’s gothic Duomo Cathedral.

Berlusconi had suffered ill health for years, from heart surgery in 2016 to a 2020 hospitalisation for Covid-19. Despite being re-elected to the Senate last year, he was rarely seen in public.

But he remained the official head of his right-wing Forza Italia party, a junior — and occasionally troublesome — partner in Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s coalition government. “Berlusconi was above all a fighter,” Meloni said in a video message posted on Twitter.

“He was a man who was not afraid to defend his convictions, and it was precisely that courage and determination which made him one of the most influential men in Italy’s history,” she said.

As Berlusconi’s body was moved from the hospital to Villa San Martino, and flags were lowered to half-mast on all public buildings, tributes flowed from in from international leaders.

Russian President Vladimir Putin — whom Berlusconi controversially defended following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine — said his death was an “irreparable loss” and he hailed him as a “true friend.” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban tweeted: “Gone is the great fighter”, while Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “Silvio was a great friend of Israel”.

Berlusconi led Italy three times between 1994 and 2011, for a total of nine years, wooing voters with a promise of economic success, only to be forced out as a debt crisis gripped his country. But his influence extended well beyond politics, thanks to his extensive TV, newspaper and sporting interests, while his playboy antics kept him in the headlines even in his final years.

European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen tweeted that she was “saddened” by the death of Berlusconi, while Pope Francis hailed his “energetic temperament”.

Italian ex-prime minister Matteo Renzi said that Berlusconi had “made history”, even if he was controversial.

“Many loved him, many hated him: everyone today must recognise that his impact on political but also economic, sporting and television life was unprecedented,” he said.

Berlusconi had been admitted to a Milan hospital on Friday for what aides said were pre-planned tests related to leukaemia.

His admission came just three weeks after he was discharged following a six-week stay at Milan’s San Raffaele hospital, during which time doctors revealed he had a rare type of blood cancer.

He is survived by his 33-year-old girlfriend, Marta Fascina, two ex-wives and five children, some of whom help run his empire, recently estimated to be worth around $7 billion.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2023