Race begins to display Berlusconi’s name in airports, stadiums and a bridge

One week after the death of former prime minister and Italian tycoon Silvio Berlusconithe proposals to put his name to emblematic places arise in all corners of Italy, such as the Milan-Linate airport, the Monza stadium or the bridge that aims to unite the island of Sicily with the rest of the country.

The Ministry of Transport, led by Matteo Salvini, a partner in the formation of the tycoon, Forza Italia, in the current government coalition, “study with great interest” the idea of ​​naming “Silvio Berlusconi” to the Milan-Linate airport, the oldest in the city where the politician was born in 1936.

The initiative must have the support of the family, although there are those who consider that the three-time Prime Minister of Italy deserves to nickname the Milano-Malpensa airport, the most important (the second in the country) and renovated during his first term.

“Berlusconi and I did it, he like Prime Minister, me as regional president. So it was his airport, as well as mine.”, said the former president of the Lombardy Region (north), Roberto Formigoni, in the newspaper La Repubblica.

For his part, the current regional leader, the conservative Attilio Fontana, wants the attic of Palazzo Lomardía, seat of the regional Executive and one of the tallest skyscrapers in Italy, to also bear the name of Berlusconi.

The idea scares the opposition. The 5 Star Movement asks to elect people who have served the state in their place “with other values”, such as the emblematic anti-mafia judges Falcone and Borsellino, assassinated by Cosa Nostra in 1992.

And the progressives of the Democratic Party are not giving up either: the mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, has made it clear that the plaque with “Berlusconi” will not appear on any street in the city until 10 years have passed since his death, as required by the law of honorary appointments.

A rule that the Monza City Council has already asked to repeal so that its soccer stadium bears the name of its last owner, the one who led the team from this Lombard city of 120,000 inhabitants to the highest category of Italian soccer.

In the race to place the name “Berlusconi” in the forefront of the country, there are even proposals for projects that have not yet been drawn up on a plan, such as the bridge that aims to link the island of Sicily with the rest of Italy and that the Parliament just approved.

Two decades ago, Berlusconi made this bridge one of his great electoral promises, but closed his third term by renouncing the project, a story with which several Forza Italia parliamentarians now justify the tycoon giving his name to the pharaonic work.

Source: EFE