Three-time former premier and media
mogul Silvio Berlusconi was said to be "in fine fettle" Thursday
after testing positive for the coronavirus, his centre-right
Forza Italia (FI) party said.
The former AC Milan owner's new partner, a 30-year-old FI MP,
has also tested positive for the virus, sources said.
Berlusconi, who turns 84 on September 29, had tested negative in
Sardinia on August 25 after his friend, businessman and former
Benetton motor racing boss Flavio Briatore tested positive after
they met at the magnate's Sardinian villa.
But the centre-right politician has now tested positive "after a
further precautionary test", FI said.
"This has happened to me too but I continue my battle," said
Berlusconi.
He said he was ready to continue leading FI in regional and
local elections across Italy on September 20-21.
Berlusconi is in isolation at his villa at Arcore near Milan.
Two of Berlusconi's children, Luigi and Barbara, also tested
positive for COVID.
The media magnate turned politician received get well soon
wishes from all sides of the political spectrum.
On Wednesday night Premier Giuseppe Conte telephoned him to give
him his best.
Berlusconi, formerly the owner of seven-time European soccer
champs Milan, was long the undisputed leader of Italy's centre
right.
But FI was overtaken a few years ago by Matteo Salvini's surging
League, a nationalist, Euroskeptic and anti-migrant populist
party.
More recently FI has also been surpassed by another nationalist
populist party, Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy (FdI).
But Berlusconi insists FI remains the "linchpin" of the
opposition to Conte's populist and centre-left government.
The two main government partners are the anti-establishment
5-Star Movement (M5S) and the centre-left Democratic Party (PD).
The M5S was formerly in government with the League but Salvini
pulled the plug on that 14-month administration in August last
year hoping to force a snap election.
Instead, to his surprise and dismay, the M5S formed an
unprecedented alliance with their longtime foes in the PD.
The new partner of Berlusconi after he left nearly 10-year
girlfriend Francesca Pascale, FI MP Marta Fascina, has also
tested positive for COVID, sources said Thursday.
Fascina, 30, has been 83-year-old Berlusconi's girlfriend since
he split from 35-year-old former TV showgirl Pascale in March.
Fascina tested positive like her boyfriend Wednesday and is in
isolation with him at his villa at Arcore outside Milan.
She spent the whole of the COVID lockdown with him at the
Provence villa of his eldest daughter Marina, then accompanied
him for a holiday on the yacht of business partner Ennio Doris,
and latterly shared a vacation with the former premier in
Sardinia, where they are believed to have contracted the virus.
Fascina has been an FI MP since the last general election in
2018.
She was born in southern Calabria but has spent much of her life
in Campania, where she was elected.
FI no. 2 Antonio Tajani, the former European Parliament
president, said Thursday he had heard from the leader Thursday
morning and he was "in fine fettle".
Salvini also said he had phoned his ally and found him "in great
form".
Both Berlusconi and Fascina have been reported to be
asymptomatic.
Berlusconi himself said he was "quite well" and would take part
"in all possible ways" in the campaign for local elections on
September 20 and 21.
"I want to reassure you that I am quite well and I continue to
work and I'll take part in every way possible in the ongoing
election campaign," he said on the phone to a convention of FI's
women's movement Azurro Donna in Genoa.
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