Silvio Berlusconi Saluted With State Funeral as Mediaset Transmission Tower Reads ‘Ciao Papà’ and ‘Grazie Silvio’
variety.comNick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italians on Wednesday bid farewell to TV tycoon and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi with a national day of mourning and a state funeral in Milan’s Duomo cathedral attended by top local political and business leaders and some foreign dignitaries, aired live across all the country’s main media outlets.
After the hearse with Berlusconi’s flower-draped casket drove slowly through Milan streets amid cheers, tens of thousands of people outside the Duomo erupted in applause as pallbearers solemnly carried the coffin through the crowd.
Inside the cathedral his five children, Marina, Pier Silvio, Barbara, Eleonora and Luigi, and his 34-year-old girlfriend Marta Fascina, shed tears as the casket was placed in front of the altar and the Archbishop of Milan, Monsignor Mario Delpini, began the service.
Berlusconi died on Monday at age 86 at the San Raffaele hospital in Milan due to complications from leukemia. The man who created the concept of private television in Italy, rising to become a media mogul before going into politics as a right-winger in 1994 and serving as Italy’s longest serving postwar prime minister, remains divisive even after his death.
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