The comrade became the symbol of Italy’s new crown wave. Berlusconi is now in the hospital.

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (83) is hospitalized with covid-19 and bilateral pneumonia.

Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s most dominant and controversial political figure for nearly 30 years, has been admitted to the San Rafaelle Hospital in Milan.

Berlusconi is now a member of the European Parliament and confirmed on Wednesday that he had tested positive for coronavirus. Despite belonging to a risk group due to his age, he has tried to present the disease as less serious.

When his party, Forza Italia, confirmed on Friday that he was hospitalized, they stressed that the admission was made for security. On Thursday, he claimed he no longer had symptoms. But shortly before midnight, his condition is said to have worsened a bit and he was sent to the hospital. He went to the hospital himself and seemed to have something similar to flu symptoms, writes La Repubblica.

On Friday morning, the Italian news agency ANSA reported that Berlusconi has bilateral pneumonia. The disease is in an early stage.

It is well known that covid-19, the disease triggered by the coronavirus, can have an insidious course, in which the patient after some illness shows signs of improvement, before even more serious symptoms appear.

“Mini cluster” with infection in the Berlusconi resort

That Berlusconi tests positive now is no surprise. Two of his children and his girlfriend, Forza Italia politician Marta Fascina, 53, recently tested positive. La Repubblica describes Berlusconi’s huge resort complex, Villa Certosa in Sardinia, as a mini cluster of corona infections.

Berlusconi was also photographed in Sardinia in August with his friend and businessman Flavio Briatore (70), who was also admitted to the San Rafaelle Hospital with covid-19.

Briatore has been seen in Italy as the symbol of Italy’s new recovery after 60 of the 150 employees at his Billionaire nightclub in Sardinia tested positive for the coronavirus. Authorities have had to track down thousands of nightclub guests after the outbreak.

Briatore’s positive corona test proved particularly inconvenient, as he had previously criticized local authorities for taking corona measures that he said ruined the local business community.

From worst to best to vacation laxity

In the spring, Italy had one of the most serious outbreaks of coronary heart disease in the world, with more than 30,000 deaths, but in June it seemed to have managed to reduce the infection. While the rest of Europe saw an increase in infection in July, Italy maintained low infection rates.

But it shouldn’t last. In August, Italians went on vacation, and apparently many had forgotten basic infection control. Until then, the island of Sardinia had had a minimal infection, but now a new large outbreak of infection is linked to the nightlife in the island’s nightclubs.

It doesn’t help that Briatore already had a slightly worn reputation. He was convicted of fraud twice in the 1980s, but escaped from jail. He was for many years a successful director of the Formula 1 circus, but in the end he became very controversial. He was expelled on suspicion that in 2008 he ordered one of the team’s drivers to crash on purpose.

Berslusconi has also had several run-ins with the courts. He was sentenced to four years in prison for tax evasion in 2013 and banned for two years. The Senate later ruled that he could not hold political office for the next six years. Because he was in his 70s, he did not serve a prison sentence, but instead had to do community service. In 2019, he was elected a Member of the European Parliament.