Last Friday our news center reported that the former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who was one of the country’s most charismatic and controversial contemporary leaders, was hospitalized.

Sadly, he passed away in Milan aged 86.

Reportedly, Berlusconi’s doctors said when he was hospitalized in April, he was battling a rare form of leukemia, and the Reuters news agency said he recently caught a lung infection.

Many have classified him as a great man one who has now left the country with a void.

He is also highly respected as a cruise ship singer and dominated Italian politics for over two decades.