Former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi says he 'will make it' after leukemia diagnosis

April 7 (UPI) -- Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Friday he believes he will recover from complications related to chronic leukemia that left him hospitalized this week.

"It's hard, but I'll make it once again," the 86-year-old three-time prime minister who still sits in the senate and heads his Forza Italia party said an early morning call to the Il Giornale newspaper.

The San Raffaele Hospital in Milan confirmed that Berlusconi was hospitalized on Wednesday and placed in intensive care "for treatment of a lung infection" adding that he had been suffering from leukemia "for some time."

His current hospital stint came after he was discharged from the same facility last week.

Berlusconi spoke by phone Thursday morning to Forza Italia officials including foreign minister Antonio Tajani, according to a news release from the party.

"He greeted them affectionately and recommended the utmost commitment in parliament, government and Forza Italia because 'the country needs us!'" the statement said.

Party principals pledged to be faithfully guided by him awaiting his recovery and return to being the "fighter he has always been."

Forza Italia is part of Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy-led coalition government, formed following elections in September.

In 2016 Berlusconi underwent heart surgery to replace a faulty aortic valve and has since been hospitalized for health conditions arising from COVID-19 infection in 2020 and 2021. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997 from which he also recovered.

A flamboyant figure who before founding Forza Italia in 1993 was a media mogul and once owned Italian soccer team AC Milan, has been embroiled in scandals for the past decade, most notoriously for his so-called "bunga bunga" parties allegedly attended by underage girls.

In February, Berlusconi was cleared of paying witnesses for their silence in a prosecution connected to the parties.

He was banned from politics after being expelled from parliament in 2013 for a tax conviction, but he was elected as a senator in September's poll after the ban was lifted.