Rome (AFP) - Italian ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, a dominant player in his nation’s politics for decades, was in intensive care in a cardiac unit Wednesday, after reportedly suffering respiratory problems.

The 86-year-old media mogul and senator, who has been in and out of the hospital in recent years, is in Milan’s San Raffaele Hospital, a member of his entourage told AFP.

Berlusconi “is in intensive care because a problem concerning an unresolved infection. But he is talking,” Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani told journalists.

He is expected to stay in the cardiothoracic wing of the San Raffaele overnight, a source told AFP.

Berlusconi was rushed to hospital after complaining of breathing difficulties, Italian media reported.

The billionaire leader of the right-wing Forza Italia party, Berlusconi spent four days last month at the same hospital for what Italian news reports called heart issues, before being discharged on March 30.

“I have already started working again… ready and determined to commit myself, as I have always done, to the country I love”, he said in a message posted on social networks on Friday.

He then posted a photo of himself on Sunday grinning in front of a vast lawn of tulips in his villa in Arcore, in northern Italy.

- ‘Forza Silvio!’ -

After dominating Italian politics for decades, the “Cavaliere” as he is widely known in Italy, now appears visibly diminished on the rare occasions he is seen in public.

Long gone are the days of his infamous erotic “bunga bunga” parties with young starlets, which he has always insisted were nothing more than elegant dinners.

Forza Italia is a member of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing coalition government, although the party attracts only about 10 percent of voters.

Meloni tweeted her “sincere and affectionate wish for a speedy recovery”, while Matteo Salvini, whose League party is also a member of the coalition, tweeted “Forza Silvio, Italy is waiting for you!”

Berlusconi was in hospital for 11 days for Covid-related pneumonia in September 2020, after contracting the virus while on holiday in Sardinia, describing it as “perhaps the most difficult ordeal of my life.”

The following year, Covid-related complications caused a series of hospital stays.

The one-time cruise ship crooner, who served as prime minister three times after entering politics in 1994, had open heart surgery in 2016 and surgery on his intestine three years later.

- Friends, showgirls -

Berlusconi won a seat in Italy’s Senate during general elections in September, nine years after he was kicked out from the upper house of parliament following a conviction on tax fraud.

He said he would act as a political fatherly figure to Meloni, but has made headlines instead for his refusal to cut ties with his long-time friend Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Berlusconi entered politics in 1994 and for millions of Italians he represented a golden age of the Italian economy and the self-made man.

He has held a soft spot in many Italians’ hearts since then, despite a series of sex scandals and court cases that threatened to tarnish his image.

In his most high-profile case, Berlusconi was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2013 for paying for sex with Karima El-Mahroug, known as “Ruby the Heart Stealer”.

It was later overturned after the judge said there was reasonable doubt that he knew she was underage.

He celebrated his latest legal victory in February, when he was acquitted of bribing witnesses to lie about his parties, after arguing that he showered the starlets with money and gifts out of pure generosity.