On June 12, Silvio Berlusconi, the flamboyant billionaire, media tycoon and politician died at a Milan hospital. Like no other, Berlusconi had dominated Italian politics over past three decades. What is less know, however, is the fact that Berlusconi was a member of the anti-communist clandestine organization Propaganda Due or P2. Founded during the Second World War, the P2 has functioned like a state within a state over the past decades. It has infiltrated civilian and military decision-making and undermined Italian’s democratic institutions from within. The organization is widely believed to be the mastermind behind a series of neo-fascist terrorist attacks and assassinations that shook Italy between 1969 and 1980.The plan was to establish an authoritarian regime disguised behind a democratic façade. The control of the media and the establishment of its own media network independent of the state formed part of that plan. The P2 helped finance the acquisition of Corriere della Sera, one of Italy’s other's most influenced newspapers. It also supported Berlusconi’s rise to the position of media mogul and prime minister. Berlusconi, in turn, made P2’s plan a reality. Over the past decades, he and his media empire have certainly played a central role in paving the way for the rise of post-fascism in Italy.