Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has explained he will take up a post in the new government because of a serious accident, he told colleagues from his Forza Italia party on Saturday.

“You have seen that I have not assumed an institutional role in this government, even if I deserved it,” Berlusconi explained at a party event in Milan.

The 86-year-old former prime minister reported that he had fallen and that doctors came to consider “a miracle” that he is still alive.

Berlusconi continued to campaign before the elections after the accident, despite the pain he felt, but doctors predict that he will fully recover from what happened.

“But, whether sitting or standing, I continue to think with my head,” Berlusconi added to the applause of those present.

Berlusconi has supported himself during his public appearances in recent months, often grabbing his colleagues. The former prime minister has been hospitalized for check-ups several times since he came down with coronavirus in September 2020.

The former prime minister is back in the Senate now that his conservative Forza Italia party has been part of Italy’s new coalition government since September elections.

Berlusconi does not have a position in the new far-right government, although the Italian media went so far as to speculate that he could occupy the position of president of the Senate. The job, however, went to far-right Ignazio La Russa, a member of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s radical far-right Brothers of Italy party.