Malpensa airport was officially renamed Aeroporto Milano-Malpensa Silvio Berlusconi on Friday. The former Italian prime minister died in 2023; the name, approved in 2024, faced legal challenges, and Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala skipped the ceremony in protest.
Berlusconi's eldest daughter, Maria Elvira “Marina” Berlusconi, said she felt “pride and emotion” at the prospect of the airport welcoming thousands of travelers under her father's name. Malpensa is Italy's second-largest airport, after Rome-Fiumicino. Sala had previously opposed the naming and said on Instagram, “What was I supposed to do? Turn up with a forced smile?”
Berlusconi served four terms as prime minister between 1994 and 2011, spending more than nine years in office—the longest tenure of any Italian prime minister since World War II. His political career included a 2013 tax-fraud conviction and an acquittal in the trial over the so-called “bunga bunga” affair.
