Former Italy PM Berlusconi has leukemia and lung infection

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1 年前

STORY: Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been suffering from chronic blood cancer for some time and is currently in intensive care for a lung infection.

That's accoridng to a statement from his doctors on Thursday.

The 86-year-old, a powerhouse in the country's politics known for his blunt speech and many scandals, was rushed to the intensive care unit of Milan's San Raffaele hospital on Wednesday,

His doctors said he'd been diagnosed in the past with leukemia, but did not say when it was first spotted, only that it was not acute.

His youngest son Luigi was seen arriving at the hospital to visit his father on Thursday.

His Forza Italia party is part of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's right-wing coalition, though the former prime minister does not have a role in government.

He has suffered repeated bouts of ill-health in recent years and came out of the same hospital just last week after being treated for a few days.

Berlusconi stepped down as prime minister for the last time in 2011, weighed down by sleaze and scandal, including his notorious "bunga bunga" parties, as Italy came close to a Greek-style debt crisis.