Silvio Berlusconi

Berlusconi climbed into Italy's financial elite in the late 1960s and became controlling shareholder of Mediaset, then bought AC Milan in 1986. He entered politics in 1994, founding Forza Italia and winning the first of three turns as prime minister - serving from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011, the longest post-war tenure in Italian history. In 2013, the Supreme Court convicted him of tax fraud: four years confirmed, banned from office, though at 76 he served the time through community service. After his ban lifted he returned to the European Parliament in 2019, then the Senate in 2022. He died a year later from complications of chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, worth $6.8 billion, leaving a legacy critics called authoritarian and supporters called charismatic - a populist who reshaped Italy by holding the microphone and the gavel at the same time.