Former Italian PM Berlusconi's funeral to be held at Milan Cathedral

Ex-premier and billionaire businessman Silvio Berlusconi will be given a state funeral in Milan cathedral on June 14, the Milan curia has said.

President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella is expected to attend, sources said on June 12, ANSA reports.

Meanwhile, sources said Berlusconi's body would be transferred to his home at Villa San Martino in Arcore, near Milan, on Monday before being laid out for people to pay their respects starting Tuesday at the production centre of his Mediaset television empire in Cologno Monzese.

Berlusconi, the founder of the Forza Italia party, became prime minister in 2001, 2005 and 2008, and resigned in 2011 after a series of scandals and prosecutions. In 2019, the politician was elected to the European Parliament from Italy. Last September, he won the election to the Senate from the constituency of Monza.

Berlusconi died on June 12. Politics was hospitalized on June 9, three weeks after he left the hospital. Prior to that, he was in San Raffaele for 45 days - from early April to late May. Doctors diagnosed him with leukaemia and pneumonia that developed against this background. He started chemotherapy.