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Silvio Berlusconi hospitalised for heart problem

Former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi has been admitted to hospital in Monaco after suffering heart problems, a spokesman said on Thursday.

Published: 14 January 2021 17:34 CET
Silvio Berlusconi hospitalised for heart problem
Silvio Berlusconi leaving hospital in September 2020 after recovering from Covid-19. Photo: Piero Cruciatti/AFP

The 84-year-old media tycoon is currently at Monaco's Cardiothoracic Centre, where his doctor sent him on Monday to undergo tests.

“I would like to reassure everyone: I am in good health, my hospitalisation was necessary only for some more than routine tests imposed by the prudence of my doctors,” Berlusconi wrote on his Facebook page. “My activity continues normally, in constant contact with my collaborators and the protagonists of public life, in this very difficult moment for the country.”

Italy is currently in the grips of a political crisis that could potentially topple Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.

READ ALSO: Italy's political crisis: Why now, and what happens next?

Berlusconi, who was Italy's prime minister for his centre-right Forza Italy party three times between 1994 and 2011, has had a string of health issues in recent years. He underwent open heart surgery in 2016, and last September was hospitalised for 11 days with coronavirus.

His personal doctor, Alberto Zangrillo, told the ANSA news agency that he made an urgent visit to Berlusconi in the south of France on Monday because of an irregular heart beat.

“I decided on an urgent hospitalisation at the Monaco cardiac centre, deeming imprudent a transfer to Italy,” he said.

Berlusconi's spokesman told AFP he expected the ex-premier to return home “within a few days.”

Berlusconi contracted Covid-19 after returning from a holiday at his luxury villa in Sardinia, where infections were spiralling. Two of his children also became infected, as did his companion Marta Fascina.

“Thank heavens, thanks to the doctors, I got over what was perhaps the most difficult ordeal of my life,” he said as he left hospital. “Once again, I seem to have got away with it!”

As a media and sports tycoon, billionaire playboy and scandal-plagued politician, Berlusconi has dominated Italian public life for decades.

A hearing due on Thursday in the latest case against him, related to the infamous “Bunga Bunga” sex parties he threw while premier, was postponed to April following his hospitalisation.

Berlusconi was convicted but later acquitted of sex with a minor and abuse of office in the scandal over parties with prostitutes hosted at his villa near Milan. But the current trial, in Siena, concerns alleged payments made by Berlusconi to people who attended the parties in exchange for their silence.

Prosecutors have asked for a sentence of four years and two months.

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POLITICS

Can foreign residents in Italy vote in the European elections?

The year 2024 is a bumper one for elections, among them the European elections in June. Italy is of course a member of the EU - so can foreign residents vote in the elections that will almost certainly affect their daily lives?

Published: 3 May 2024 15:25 CEST
Can foreign residents in Italy vote in the European elections?

Across Europe, people will go to the polls in early June to select their representatives in the European Parliament, with 76 seats up for grabs in Italy. 

Although European elections usually see a much lower turnout than national elections, they are still seen as important by Italian politicians.

Giorgia Meloni will stand as a candidate this year, hoping use her personal popularity to give her Brothers of Italy party a boost and build on her success in Italy to “send the left into opposition” at the European level too.

When to vote

Across Italy, polling takes place on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th June 2024.

Polling stations will be set up in the same places as for national and local elections – usually town halls, leisure centres and other public buildings.

You have to vote at the polling station for the municipality in which you are registered as a resident, which should be indicated on your electoral card.

Polling stations open at 8am and mostly close at 6pm, although some stay open later.

Unlike in presidential or local elections, there is only a single round of voting in European elections.

Who can vote? 

Italian citizens – including dual nationals – can vote in European elections, even if they don’t live in Italy. As is common for Italian domestic elections, polling booths will be set up in Italian consulates around the world to allow Italians living overseas to vote.

Non-Italian citizens who are living in Italy can only vote if they have citizenship of an EU country. So for example Irish citizens living in Italy can vote in European elections but Americans, Canadians, Australians, etc. cannot.

Brits in Italy used to be able to vote before Brexit, but now cannot – even if they have the post-Brexit carta di soggiorno.

If you have previously voted in an election in Italy – either local or European – you should still be on the electoral roll.

If not, in order to vote you need to send an application more than 90 days before the election date.

How does the election work?

The system for European elections differs from most countries’ domestic polls. MEPs are elected once every five years.

Each country is given an allocation of MEPs roughly based on population size. At present there are 705 MEPs: Germany – the country in the bloc with the largest population – has the most while the smallest number belong to Malta with just six.

Italy, like most of its EU neighbours, elects its MEPs through direct proportional representation via the ‘list’ system, so that parties gain the number of MEPs equivalent to their share of the overall vote.

So, for example, if Meloni’s party won 50 percent of the vote they would get 38 out of the total of 76 Italian seats.

Exactly who gets to be an MEP is decided in advance by the parties who publish their candidate lists in priority order. So let’s say that Meloni’s party does get that 50 percent of the vote – then the people named from 1 to 38 on their list get to be MEPs, and the people lower down on the list do not, unless a candidate (for example, Meloni) declines the seat and passes it on to the next person on the list.

In the run up to the election, the parties decide on who will be their lead candidates and these people will almost certainly be elected (though Meloni would almost definitely not take up her seat as an MEP, as this would mean resigning from office in Italy).

The further down the list a name appears, the less likely that person is to be heading to parliament.

Once in parliament, parties usually seek to maximise their influence by joining one of the ‘blocks’ made up of parties from neighbouring countries that broadly share their interests and values eg centre-left, far-right, green.

The parliament alternates between Strasbourg and Brussels. 

Find out more about voting in the European elections from Italy on the European Parliament’s website or the Italian interior ministry’s website.

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