How is Italy mourning Silvio Berlusconi’s state funeral and who will take over his €6 billion empire?

At the start of the week, news broke that Italy’s former prime minister and media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi had passed away at the age of 86 in Milan’s San Raffaele Hospital after battling a form of leukaemia. 

The same day, the government announced that the country would enter a national day of mourning on Wednesday 14 June to mark Berlusconi’s state funeral, with an estimated 20,000 people expected to gather outside Milan’s grand cathedral to pay their respects while watching the ceremony on large screens.

In addition to the large crowds outside, around 2,000 people, including national party leaders past and present as well as Berlusconi’s two ex-wives and five children, will enter the Gothic Duomo at 3pm (1pm GMT) to mourn the Milan-born media tycoon with Archbishop Mario Delpini presiding over processions.

This kind of service is unprecedented for a former prime minister as they are usually reserved for war heroes, popes and serving politicians however the empire that Berlusconi created has been cemented in history.

Other tributes are being paid to the controversial Berlusconi across the country with Italian and European flags on public buildings being lowered to half mast, parliamentary votes to be suspended for a week and a large wreath placed in front of the Duomo in the colours of the Italian flag.

Prior to his state funeral in Metropolitan Cathedral-Basilica of the Nativity of Saint Mary, Berlusconi has been lying in state in his home’s private chapel, the Villa San Martino in Arcore, where only close friends or relatives could visit.

With all eyes on the former PM’s family on the day of national mourning, questions have started to be asked about who will succeed Berlusconi in his €6 billion empire that he built up from selling vacuum cleaners in Milan.

During his lifetime, Berlusconi’s empire spanned media, property, sport, financial and political spheres, with his efforts in the latter field still embedded in today’s current government.

Berlusconi owned football club AC Milan from 1986 to 2017, had the controlling shares in Mediaset and built up a multi-million euro company called Fininvest which his five children namely Marina (56), Pier Silvio (53), Barbara (38), Eleonora (36) and Luigi (34) all hold stakes in.

In a real-life ‘Succession’ story, debates will be held as to whether his two eldest children, who have had managerial roles in the empire since the early 1990s, will divide their father’s 61% stake in Fininvest.

Other valuable assets that could be handed down to Berlusconi’s succeeding family members include his numerous luxurious villas in Rome, Cannes, the Caribbean and Sardinia that have welcomed the likes of George W.Bush and Vladimir Putin.