Silvio Berlusconi is calming nerves ahead of his operation next week to replace his aortic valve, the flamboyant former Italian premier's 31-year-old girlfriend Francesca Pascale told daily La Repubblica on Friday.
"He's being a doctor to all of us, keeping us calm and telling us to stay positive, to have faith and be united. He is absolutely in control," Pascale said.
"I am an emotional, anxious person. But I am confident that it will all go well and that his temperament will allow him to win this battle as well," Pascale added.
Berlusconi was continuing to crack jokes from his hospital bed in Milan and was "cooperating fully" with doctors, she said.
Berlusconi is being assisted by his personal physician Alberto Zangrillo, who said on Thursday he had been advising 79-year-old Berlusconi for some time to step down as leader of his conservative Forza Italia party.
"Knowing Berlusconi, I don't think that's going to happen. He will certainly slow down, but I think he will stay at the helm of the party," Pascale said.
Berlusconi was admitted to Milan's San Raffaele hospital on Tuesday with what the hospital called 'cardiac deficiency' after feeling unwell at the weekend. Forza Italia attributed his heart problem to the stress of campaigning for local elections held on Sunday.
Pascale and Berlusconi have been an item since 2012 but in February rumours swirled that the 79-year-old billionaire media mogul had fallen for 21-year-old Lavinia Palombini, the daughter of a Rome businessman who he met on holiday in Sardinia. Berlusconi was said to have been calling Palombini 60 times a day but Palombini's lawyers denied she was in a relationship with him.
Berlusconi had a pacemaker fitted in a hospital in the United States when he was 70.
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