To Italians, Mr. Berlusconi was constant entertainment — both comic and tragic, with more than a touch of off-color material — until they booed him off the stage. But he kept coming back. To economists, he was the man who helped drive the Italian economy into the ground. To political scientists, he represented a bold new experiment in television’s impact on voters. And to tabloid reporters, he was a delicious fount of scandal, gaffes, ribald insults and sexual escapades.
With a net worth of $6.8 billion as of June 2023, Berlusconi was the third-wealthiest person in Italy at the time of his death. The Guardian explained that “Berlusconi dominated the public life of his country in a way no Italian had done since the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.”