Silvio Berlusconi was hospitalised with severe kidney pain, confirmed his spokeswoman on Tuesday. Despite the unexpected hospitalisation, the former Italian prime minister is ready to continue campaigning for European Parliament elections due next month, Financial Times reported.
The spokeswoman was quoted as saying that the three-time prime minister was undeterred by his condition and planned to attend an afternoon meeting of candidates standing for his party at the European elections.
Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian media mogul, has faded as a political force since being forced to quit as prime minister in 2011 but he still leads his conservative Forza Italia party and his family holding group, Fininvest, controls Italy’s largest private media group, Mediaset. The 82-year-old political veteran is full of energy to pay the way to his political party to the EU parliament.
Mr Berlusconi has been dogged by health concerns in recent years, undergoing open heart surgery in 2016, but he has never indicated he is ready to retire from politics and is standing as a candidate for the May 26 European elections.
Berlusconi’s Forza Italia described his complaint as renal colic, a severe pain caused by kidney stones. The party said he wanted to return to the campaign trail immediately.
“As soon as checks currently been carried out are over, he has promised to be present at the Forza Italia event scheduled for this afternoon with the European election candidates,” an official statement of the ex-PM spokeswoman reads.
