Remember Berlusconi? Travelers passing through Milan, the city most closely associated with the late media magnate and four-time Italian prime minister, will now get a gentle reminder because Milan’s Malpensa airport will henceforth have Berlusconi as part of its name.

Of course, not everyone in Italy is happy about that decision. Many remember Silvio Berlusconi, who died last June at the age of 86, more as an unapologetic Lothario and giver of lavish parties than as advertisement for Italian culture and moral rectitude.

Italy’s Ministry of Infrastructure made the announcement this week, stating that the relevant ordinance “takes effect immediately” — though as anyone who knows a bit about Italy can attest, “immediately” in the bel paese can sometimes take a little time.

According to its website, the iconic airport outside Milano and largest transportation hub in northern Italy is still called Malpensa. But the government says that it is now officially called “Malpensa-Silvio Berlusconi International Airport.”

The announcement added that the airport’s management company, which is owned by the municipality of Milan, “will take care of the relevant formalities connected to the new name.” Furthermore, Italy’s deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, has expressed his “great satisfaction” with the airport’s new moniker.

Following a snap Italian election in September 2022, Mr. Salvini’s populist Northern League party entered into a three-part center-right coalition along with Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party and Prime Minister Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party.

Given the fractious state of politics in Italy, it is little wonder that bestowing the JFK-style airport honors on Berlusconi is creating some turbulence. Milan’s mayor, Giuseppe “Beppe” Sala, says the management company has done a poor job of communicating the decision. 

That ambivalent stance drew a swift rebuke from Mr. Salvini, who said that “Malpensa airport will be named after Berlusconi. The mayor should think about cutting the grass, filling the potholes and guaranteeing safety.” 

The minister of tourism, Daniela Santanchè, fell in line with Mr. Salvini, writing on X, “Mr. Sala the procrastinator has finally decided to act and address Milan’s many problems, never resolved by him, starting with the most urgent: Malpensa airport being named after Silvio Berlusconi.”

Italy’s Partito Democratico, or Democratic Party, led by the half Jewish (and half American) Elly Schlein, wasted no time making its misgivings known. On Thursday one of its parliamentarians, Silvia Roggiani, asked to clarify “which procedure was followed to name Malpensa airport after Silvio Berlusconi,” and why the legal procedure, which apparently requires a period of 10 years from the death of the person before naming a public place after him or her, “was not respected.”

The PD people also want to know if the airport’s management company alone has the authority to change the airport’s name. 

Another PD politician, Pierfrancesco Majorino, was less charitable in his reaction, stating that  “we are faced with a terrible signal to the world and a slap in the face to the many serious and honest citizens who in recent days have spoken out in opposition to that [renaming] choice,” adding that “we will carry out the formal actions to try to erase this horrible choice.”

A member of Italy’s Green Party — si, they still have one — Carlo Monguzzi, admitted that “Malpensa is now officially named after Silvio Berlusconi.” But he also stated that “Bunga Bunga and Mubarak’s granddaughter win over seriousness and civic and institutional sense — now let’s multiply our efforts to send Salvini and the government away.”

Berlusconi held his infamous bunga bunga parties at his private villa near Milan.

A Milan regional council member, Giulia Pastorella, took a more measured approached to the modified nomenclature, calling it “a senseless, divisive operation not in line with the decisions taken for other Italian airports, which are named after great shared historical figures.”

She is correct: Rome’s Fiumicino airport is named after Leonardo da Vinci, Venice’s for Marco Polo.

“We are missing the opportunity to dedicate Malpensa, as suggested by the City Council of Milan, to historical figures such as the Milanese Rosina Ferrario, who was the first Italian aviator in history,” Ms. Pastorella added. The controversy is likely to continue for some time. Meanwhile, the International Civil Aviation Organization’s official designation of the newly rechristened Malpensa-Silvio Berlusconi International Airport as MXP looks likely to stay the same.