Malpensa Is Renamed After Berlusconi, and the Row Reaches Rome

Milan's Malpensa airport was officially named after Silvio Berlusconi in a ceremony on Friday, according to The Local Italy, which reported that the change honours the former prime minister and billionaire and has drawn criticism from local and national politicians. The paper described Berlusconi as 'scandal-plagued', a characterisation that sits at the centre of the objection.

The renaming converts a piece of transport infrastructure into a political statement. Airports are named after figures a state has decided to canonise — the choice is normally reserved for the uncontested — and Malpensa handles a substantial share of Italy's long-haul traffic, meaning the name will be read by arriving foreign visitors before they reach the city.

Criticism from elected officials at both levels, as reported by The Local Italy, suggests the decision was contested rather than ceremonial. The paper did not record the specific arguments made, only that the move was criticised, and it named no individual objectors.

The naming carries a particular charge in Rome, where Berlusconi's four governments shaped a generation of the Italian state and where the institutions he dealt with — Parliament, the presidency, the courts — are the ones that will now be asked to live with his name on a gateway. The capital's own airports, Fiumicino and Ciampino, carry no such dedication, and the contrast is likely to be noted whenever the question of public honours is next raised.

The ceremony also lands in the middle of a political season. The Guardian reported this week that the Italian government has been accused of divisive rhetoric ahead of next year's general election, with critics saying the coalition is courting far-right voters. A dedication ceremony for the movement's founding figure belongs to the same calendar, and foreign correspondents covering Italian politics will file it as such.

What the foreign coverage does not supply is the detail of the opposition: The Local Italy recorded that politicians at local and national level criticised the move but did not set out their reasoning, and no other outlet in the wire carried the story. That limits what can responsibly be reported about the objections themselves. What is established is the fact of the renaming, the criticism it drew, and the framing — 'scandal-plagued' — that the English-language press attached to the man now commemorated on the departures board.