From a Wall Street Journal obit by Manuela Mesco and Eric Sylvers headlined “Silvio Berlusconi, Former Italian Prime Minister and Media Magnate, Dies at 86”:

Silvio Berlusconi, the media tycoon and Italy’s longest-serving postwar prime minister who dominated the country’s politics for nearly two decades amid a raft of scandals, has died.

An extraordinarily divisive figure in Italy and often a target of ridicule abroad for his ribald jokes, sex scandals and overlapping political and business interests, Berlusconi conditioned Italian politics and embodied its conservative movement during and after his tenure as Italy’s leader.