The Italian former prime minister and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi has stated in his will that his two eldest children Pier Silvio and Marina will jointly receive 53 percent of Fininvest, the family’s financial holding company. Berlusconi died on June 12 at the age of 86, but his will has only now been read.
Both children hold top positions in the family businesses. By granting Pier Silvio and Marina the majority, Berlusconi thus opted for business continuity. Barbara, Eleonora and Luigi, the three children from a later marriage, are also included in their father’s will.
The last great Berlusconi show also divides Italy
Mafia ties
It also includes some notable donations. Berlusconi set aside 100 million euros for his brother Paolo, another 100 million euros for his last life partner Marta Fascina, and also 30 million euros for Marcello Dell’Utri. The former senator of Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party always remained a close friend even after his conviction for ties to the mafia.
Dell’Utri, free from prison, reacted emotionally to the notary’s call. “I’ve been crying all morning since I heard it. He owed me nothing,” Dell’Utri told Ansa news agency.
Spicy detail: Berlusconi asks four of his children – and not the youngest son Luigi – to reserve the amount for those donations from his estate. He wrote that request following a hospitalization on January 19, 2022, “in case I don’t come home anymore”. But he did return home then, because he would not die until more than a year later. Lawyer and inheritance law specialist Alessandro Orsenigo says about this in the newspaper Il Messaggero that in principle this now leaves his children the choice whether or not they respect their father’s wish regarding the three gifts.
Without Berlusconi, Meloni is even more firmly in the saddle