Silvio Berlusconi was certainly no angel and never considered himself to be one. Suffice to say, a Wikipedia page on a lifetime of legal cases against him runs to 18,000 words. But news of Berlusconi’s death on Monday shook the country and moved millions of Italians. His career was tainted by sex scandals, countless allegations of corruption and a tax fraud conviction, yet many paid their respects to one of the dominant figures in Italy’s postwar republic.
Even the Milan prosecutor’s office, to which Berlusconi gave so much work, paid its tribute a few hours after his death, citing “a man who marked the history of Italy”.
