The Words of Francesca Pascale
It’s sad, I have a weight on my heart, the words are missing. Death is a serious thing, said Totò. These are the words of Francesca Pascale, companion of Silvio Berlusconi for over ten years, who chose to break the silence and express her words on the Cavaliere on the pages of Repubblica, who passed away at the age of 86 after living with leukemia for some time. “Today I only feel pain, and that can’t be explained,” says Francesca Pascale. “With Berlusconi you could clash, argue, but it was difficult to erase him forever. You either loved him or hated him. It was my old life, today it died with him,” adds Pascale, who is now married to singer Paola Turci.
The Impact of Berlusconi’s Death
“It’s a bit like I lost my mother again: that was a devastating void. Of course he was also a guide,” adds Francesca Pascale. “He gave me so much: and certainly not just for the comforts, the luxury I saw in those years,” but for the “world he made me know, the scenarios in which I found myself.” Among the examples, “lunch with Gaddafi. The international recognition of Silvio. Then the shock of seeing him go to Social Services, the police coming to knock, him being kind, me stunned. Or that time I met Putin in the hallway.”
The Relationship Between Pascale and Berlusconi
“We are human beings: and if there was affection, a deep feeling that bound two people, you can’t reset it, we are not robots,” adds Francesca Pascale, suspending the political judgment on him. “It’s not up to me to give it now. But every time I didn’t agree, even though I counted for nothing, having no role, I said it. In recent times, I really broke his soul, really a lot, on certain Lega follies, on certain mistakes. And I really think he couldn’t take it anymore. Human. But I was honest, in joy and dissent, he knew it.” Regarding the funeral of the former Prime Minister, which will take place on June 14th in the Milan Cathedral, Francesca Pascale explains that “I will be one of the many to say goodbye. A woman who has made her own journey, gone her own way, serene. But he had his own love for life, I think he really understood it in the end.”
