Italy mourns and asks who will succeed Berlusconi

Italy is marking the loss of life of ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi with a spectacle befitting the grand cleaning soap opera of his life.

The one-time cruise singer who led Italy with no prior political expertise constructed a media empire and had a string of wives and girlfriends.

The Archbishop of Milan will lead Berlusconi’s state funeral within the metropolis’s grand cathedral on Wednesday.

Italy is holding a day of nationwide mourning.

All Italian and European flags on public buildings have been lowered to half-mast.

This sort of tribute is unprecedented for a former prime minister. A state funeral is a privilege normally reserved for popes, battle heroes and serving ministers.

Milan is a metropolis deeply related to Silvio Berlusconi – that is the place he was born and the place he began his profession, promoting vacuum cleaners.

Maxi-screens have been arrange in the principle sq., which is predicted to replenish with hundreds of individuals who will come to say a closing farewell.

Behind the scenes, a real succession story can be taking part in out.

During his lifetime, Berlusconi amassed an unlimited empire that spanned media, actual property, finance, cinema and sport – in addition to a strong political occasion that’s a part of Italy’s present authorities.

He was considered one of Italy’s richest males. According to Forbes, his enterprise belongings are price about €6bn (£5.15bn).

But he by no means publicly indicated who ought to lead his enterprise empire after his loss of life and there are additionally huge questions over the way forward for the Forza Italia occasion he created.

Berlusconi has two youngsters from his first marriage and three from his second. All of them have stakes in Fininvest, his holding firm.

The way forward for his enterprise pursuits will probably rely upon how he has chosen to distribute the 61% stake he had in Fininvest.

Will there be equal shares for all, or extra for the 2 eldest youngsters, Marina and Pier Silvio, who have held administration roles within the empire because the early 1990s?

Other useful belongings are undoubtedly Berlusconi’s quite a few luxurious villas. They may very well be difficult to cross on to his offspring in an equal approach.

His Villa San Martino in Arcore, north-east of Milan, covers 3,500 sq m and dates again to the 18th Century. He additionally has houses at Lake Maggiore, in Rome, Cannes, the Caribbean and elsewhere.

The jewel in Berlusconi’s crown of properties is Villa Certosa, a mansion in Sardinia that he purchased within the 1970s.

He hosted world leaders there, from Vladimir Putin to George W. Bush. It has 126 rooms and seems to be like a theme park – together with a pretend volcano that erupts lava. Its worth is estimated at €259m.

People near the household have described Berlusconi as “the glue” who stored his youngsters united.

There has been no dispute to this point over who takes over the empire – that’s anticipated to fall to his oldest youngster Marina, 56, thought-about closest of the 5 to her father.

The huge query is whether or not that household unity will be maintained now that Berlusconi has gone, and what affect that may have on the way forward for his enterprise empire.

His loss of life might show disastrous for the way forward for his political occasion. Can Forza Italia survive with out its charismatic creator – or might it disintegrate in a matter of months?

He was the last word populist chief, and unsurprisingly, the occasion he created was totally formed round his persona.

His right-hand man, international minister Antonio Tajani, has categorically denied its future is in danger: “It’s unthinkable that the party would disappear.”

But Forza Italia’s share of the vote had already slipped to 8% in final September’s common election.

Many Italians who backed the occasion did so as a result of they had been Berlusconi loyalists and it will be difficult to nominate a successor they will heat to.

In actuality, occasion members will most likely look to the Berlusconi household to decide.

Will the 2 eldest, Marina and Pier Silvio, wish to preserve investing of their father’s political creation, or will they flip off the monetary faucet and minimize their losses?

Without their monetary help, Forza Italia has no likelihood of surviving. Berlusconi closely funded his occasion – reportedly injecting it with practically €100m.

There is a few hypothesis that Marina might succeed him as chief, however for now this stays a hearsay. She is seen as extra of a behind-the-scenes operator.

Another unknown is Berlusconi’s companion Marta Fascina, who is 53 years his junior. She’s an MP in his occasion and has mentioned a number of occasions that “her passion is politics and she grew up with the myth of Silvio Berlusconi”.

Berlusconi’s eldest daughter reportedly blocked his plan to marry her final 12 months. So there’s a cloud over Ms Fascina’s future function in her late companion’s occasion.

One factor is for certain: if Forza Italia does fracture, it might be a giant drawback for the opposite members of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s coalition authorities.

Political instability looms after Wednesday’s day of nationwide mourning.

In a rustic so well-known for normal political crises, a authorities collapse triggered by the disintegration of one of many coalition companions doesn’t appear such an unlikely situation.

Until now, Berlusconi’s youngsters have prevented the limelight. But his loss of life would possibly power them to emerge from the shadows to take the reins of his empire.

Berlusconi had well being drawback for years so it’s probably he and his youngsters had thought all of this by means of.

They would possibly go for a straightforward transition heralded by their eldest sister Marina, somewhat than get right into a succession battle which might go flawed.