Italian right-wingers have renamed Milan’s airport after Silvio Berlusconi

“I am appalled,” declared an executive of one of Italy’s premier fashion houses, contemplating the prospect of clients and suppliers arriving in Milan at Silvio Berlusconi airport. She is not alone. Although many Italians see the renaming of Malpensa airport on July 11th as a fitting tribute to the republic’s longest-serving prime minister, others are acutely embarrassed.

Some are already calling Italy’s second-biggest air-passenger terminal “Bunga Bunga airport”—a dig at the late prime minister’s hosting of sex parties that led to his being tried (and acquitted) of paying an under-age prostitute. The renaming accords Berlusconi, a convicted tax fraudster who died in 2023, an honour otherwise reserved for the likes of Leonardo da Vinci (after whom Rome’s main airport is named), Galileo Galilei (Pisa) and Marco Polo (Venice).