Silvio Berlusconi is Italy’s third richest man and his story could easily become a Hollywood movie. Let’s see what his net worth is and how he got there.
From media tycoon to country leader. Donald Trump? No, I’m talking about his Italian equivalent (and predecessor): Silvio Berlusconi. One of the most recognizable Italian celebrities, the 86 years old entrepreneur and politician still holds a significant amount of power.
Silvio Berlusconi started as an entrepreneur at a very early age. His initial ventures were already in the Italian media industry, eventually scaling up to own a majority share in Mediaset, Italy’s largest private media company.
From there, he also acquired stakes in a major Italian publisher: Mondadori, as well as AC Milan, one of Italy’s most important football teams. By 1990, Silvio Berlusconi was already Italy’s richest man, with a net worth of $8 billion.
In the early 1990s, the Italian political scenario was undergoing a major shift. Since the end of World War II and the birth of the Italian Republic, one party had held true power almost uninterrupted.
The Democrazia Cristiana (Christian Democracy) party comprised center-right and conservative views, being overall more moderate than its leftist counterpart. The party’s led coalition won almost every election between 1948 and 1990.
At the end of the century, however, a major scandal regarding corruption and connection with Italy’s mafia tore the party apart. The death of Democrazia Cristiana left a massive power void ready for grabs. And Silvio Berlusconi was there to take it.
Berlusconi’s political career
Running for the 1994 general elections, Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right party Forza Italia (Go Italy) seemed the only hope left. His control over the largest media companies of Italy also helped him immensely.
Berlusconi won the 1994 elections by a landslide. His coalition gathered 42% of the votes, 6 percentage points away from the second largest party.
This election would mark the beginning of Italy’s longest political career in Republican history. Silvio Berlusconi would be a member of Italy’s Parliament for the following 19 years, serving as Prime Minister four different times.
His overall tenure as PM was 11 years long and was ridden with reforms as well as political scandals. Berlusconi famously weaved close relationships with authoritarian regimes like Putin’s Russia and Gaddafi’s Libya. Internally, several trials have either accused or outright convicted him of corruption, not to mention his questionable sexual conduct which led to other trials.
In 2013, Berlusconi was forced to resign as Senator following a corruption conviction. His imprisonment was condoned in favor of one year of social community work.
Today, Berlusconi is Italy’s third richest man, with a net worth decreased from its peak but still a solid $7.1 billion. At the 2022 general elections, Silvio Berlusconi was confirmed as senator again, with Forza Italia being part of the government’s coalition.
