From the Milan airport to the bridge in Sicily, the race to carry Berlusconi’s name

A week after the death of former Italian Prime Minister and tycoon Silvio Bersluconi, Proposals to name symbolic places after him appear in all parts of Italylike Milan-Linate Airport, Monza Stadium or the bridge that aims to connect the island of Sicily with the rest of the country.

The Ministry of Transport, led by Matteo Salvini, a partner in the magnate’s formation, Forza Italia, is “studying with great interest” the idea of ​​naming the Milan-Linate airport “Silvio Berlusconi”, 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 believe that the three-time prime minister of Italy deserves the nickname Milan-Malpensa airport, the most important (second in the country) and renovated during his first term.

“Berlusconi and I did it, he as prime minister, me as regional president. So it was his airport as much as mine,” former president of the Lombardy (north) region Roberto Formigoni told the newspaper La Repubblica.

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

The idea scares the opposition. The 5-Star Movement demands that people who served the country “with other values” be elected in his place.like the emblematic anti-mafia judges Falcone and Borsellino, who were killed by Cosa Nostra in 1992.

And even the progressives of the Democratic Party are not giving up: the mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, has made it clear that a plaque with Berlusconi will not appear on any street in the city until 10 years after his death, as prescribed by the law of honorary appointments.

The city council of Monza has already asked for this rule to be lifted so that its football stadium can bear the name of the last owner, the one who took the team from this Lombardy city of 120,000 to the highest category of Italian football.

In the race to put the surname “Berlusconi” in the forefront of the country, there are even proposals for projects that have not yet been planned, as a bridge that intends to unite the island of Sicily with the rest of Italy and this was just approved by the Parliament.

Two decades ago, Berlusconi made this bridge one of his big campaign promises, but he closed his third term by abandoning the project, a story now used by several Forza Italia parliamentarians to justify the tycoon who gave his name to the pharaoh’s business.