Anew piece of street art at Malpensa Airport in Milan says welcome to Silvio Berlusconi Aiport, showing the late three-time ex premier and media mogul astride an airplane and making a characteristic gesture.
    The government's decision to name the Milanese airport after Berlusconi, who died two years ago Thursday, is facing a legal challenge at the regional administrative court (TAR).
    The mural by artist AleXsandro Palombois depicts the former leader of the centre-right Forza Italia party as if he were astride the fuselage of an Alitalia airplane in flight, while with his left hand he makes his typical greeting.
    "The Cavaliere," explained Palombo, "embodies the ability to lead and dominate a giant, just as he conducted his long career in business and politics with determination." Transport Minister and rightwing League party leader Matteo Salvini said last July that Malpensa had officially been named after Berlusconi.
    Milan's centre left Mayor Giuseppe Sala and leftwing parties appealed against the decision saying Berlusconi, who died on June 12, 2023 aged 86, was, and remains, a divisive figure.
    Salvini, whose League is a long-time ally of Berlusconi's FI, dismissed Sala's complaint saying "the Left is going mad because we kept our promise to dedicate Malpensa Aiport to Silvio Berlusconi,a great man, a great Italian, who created hundreds of thousands of jobs.
    "There isn't anyone on the Left who is worth a tenth of what Silvio Berlusconi is worth.

We wont' stop in the face of insults, attacks and slurs," said Salvini.
    He said Sala should instead focus on solving Milan's problems with potholes, urban decorum and rising levels of crime and migrant-linked insecurity, among other things.
    Critics of the naming have contrasted what they say will be a "Bunga Bunga Airport" to other Italian airports named after allegedly more illustrious figures such as Leonardo da Vinci (Rome), Marco Polo (Venice), Christopher Columbus (Genoa), Sandro Pertini (Turin), Catullus (Verona), Guglielmo Marconi (Bologna), Galileo Galilei (Pisa) and Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino (Palermo).
    Berlusconi supporters say he is a worthy recipient of the honour because he was a great statesman and Italy's longest serving postwar premier, as well as transforming Milan with his futuristic housing developments and changing the face of Italian media.

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