World

Former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi has been moved from intensive care following treatment for a lung infection, his brother has said.

Berlusconi, who has chronic leukaemia, had been hospitalised for treatment and is now on a regular ward at a Milan hospital.

“All okay, he’s out of intensive care,” his brother Paolo told the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

The hospital declined to comment on the report – but said that it would issue a medical bulletin on the 86-year-old’s condition today.

Doctors – including his long-time personal physician – recently revealed that the former three-time premier has chronic leukaemia.

He has also suffered serious heart problems – and in 2020, he was admitted to the same hospital in critical condition for treatment of COVID-19.

After being discharged from a 10-day hospital stay, he said the disease had been “insidious” and was the most dangerous challenge he had ever faced.

His Forza Italia party – which he founded about 30 years ago – and Matteo Salvini’s Anti-Migrant League, are junior partners in the government led by far-right prime minister Giorgia Meloni. But Mr Berlusconi holds no government role.

He stepped down as prime minister for the last time in 2011 as Italy came close to a Greece-style debt crisis and he faced numerous scandals, most notably around his notorious “bunga bunga” parties.