Milan's Malpensa airport has been officially named after former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, according to Il Sole 24 ORE. The dedication drew an emotional response from his daughter Marina Berlusconi, who said the honour filled her with "emozione e orgoglio" — emotion and pride.
The naming was not without controversy. Vanity Fair Italia reported that the decision sparked immediate polemics, while Il Fatto Quotidiano noted that Milan mayor Giuseppe Sala stayed away from the ceremony, that Berlusconi's brother covered a payment linked to the event, and that Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani was in New York at the time.
Coverage of the renaming extended beyond the ceremony itself. Il Giorno carried a headline referencing "Aeroporto Pierluigi Bersani," and Il Foglio ran a piece titled "Il Cav. a decollo vertical" — a play on Berlusconi's nickname, Il Cavaliere, and the idea of a vertical takeoff.
The reports, as summarised in the source material, centre on the official designation of the airport and the range of political and public reaction it produced. Berlusconi, who died in 2023, led several Italian governments and remained a dominant figure in the country's public life for decades.
What to watch next: whether the political fallout over the naming continues, and how the airport's new identity is received by travellers and local officials in the months ahead.
