The Lombardy Regional Administration
Court (TAR) on Monday rejected an appeal by leftwing parties to
halt the naming of Milan's Malpensa Airport after late
three-time premier and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi.
Sources at the transport ministry, whose chief and rightwing
League leader Matteo Salvini had pushed strongly for the move
which was approved by the ministry last summer, voiced "great
satisfaction" at the TAR's ruling.
"It is a lesson for the Left that does not win elections and
reduces everything to a matter of judicial dispute" said the
sources.
The transport ministry said on July 11 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 in
June last year aged 86, was, and remains, a divisive figure.
Salvini, whose League is a long-time ally of Berlusconi's centre
right Forza Italia (FI) party, at the time 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
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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