Former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi still in hospital, but better than before, say sources

Milan: Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is "better than he was," his friend Fedele Confalonieri claimed after seeing him in hospital for a lung infection caused by persistent leukaemia on Friday.

On Wednesday, the 86-year-old billionaire media tycoon was transported to Milan's San Raffaele hospital, sparking rumours that his life was in jeopardy and attracting a flood of relatives and friends to his bedside.

On Thursday, his physicians revealed that he had been suffering from leukaemia "for some time" and had lately developed a lung infection.

Confalonieri, who has worked in Berlusconi’s business empire for decades, visited him for a second day running, later telling reporters that he had exchanged a joke with the former prime minister. Asked if he was optimistic, he replied: “Yes.”

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Another friend, the editor of Il Giornale newspaper Augusto Minzolini, wrote on Friday that Berlusconi had reassured him in a phone call that he would recover. “‘It´s hard, but I’ll pull through once again’,” Minzolini quoted him as saying.

Well-wishers have gathered outside the Milan hospital to show their support, including 90-year-old Ruggiero Sutto, who said he was suffering from the same sort of blood cancer.

“These things are normal at a certain age,” he told Reuters. “I’m sure he’ll make it because he’s a strong man, and because he’s the best prime minister we’ve had in Italy. If they were all like him, Italy would have become a great country.”

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