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The 86-year-old three-time premier was admitted to the ICU because of an “unresolved problem� related to a previous infection, said Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who is also a leader of Berlusconi's Forza Italia party.

Berlusconi has had a series of health problems in recent years, most significantly He told reporters after being discharged from a 10-day hospital stay then that disease had been “insidious� and was the most dangerous challenge he had ever faced.

He has had a pacemaker for years, underwent heart surgery to replace an aortic valve in 2016 and has overcome prostate cancer. In January 2022 he was admitted for a reported urinary tract infection.

Berlusconi had been to San Raffaele, where his personal physician works, for a regular checkup for several days just last week. In a March 31 tweet after he returned home, Berlusconi thanked “all those who wanted to send a thought or sign of affection in these days.�

He said he was already back at work “ready and determined to commit myself as I've always done to the country I love.�

Messages wishing him a speedy recovery poured in from across the political spectrum. “Forza Silvio,� tweeted Premier Giorgia Meloni, alluding to the soccer chant that Berlusconi turned into the name of his political party.

Berlusconi, a media mogul-turned politician, made his in September general elections, winning a Senate seat a decade after being banned from holding public office over a tax fraud conviction. That election brought a hard-right-led government to power, with Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party a junior member of a government headed by Meloni.

Berlusconi remains at the helm of Forza Italia, the center-right party he created when he jumped into politics in the early 1990s, though the day-to-day running of the party has been left to underlings.

Most recently he has made waves with a handful of comments about , boasting that the two had exchanged birthday greetings and Berlusconi's comments have irked the pro-Ukraine Meloni government, though just this week Tajani insisted that Berlusconi is committed to a peaceful solution to the war.

In January 2022, Berlusconi from consideration to be Italy's president.