The knowledge that the Milan-Malpensa Silvio Berlusconi airport will welcome thousands of travelers from all over the world every day fills me with pride and emotion. What better name could a bridge like this have than that of Silvio Berlusconi?
Thus Marina Berlusconi, interviewed by ANSA, on the day the Milanese airport was named after the former prime minister, recalling how he was 'a man who always sought dialogue with everyone'.
My father spent his life looking ahead and into the distance - added the president of Fininvest - I like to think that from today his name will welcome those arriving from other countries and accompany those taking off towards new destinations.
Naming Malpensa airport after Silvio Berlusconi is the "best memory" that can be made of him, also states his brother Paolo who recalls how "Silvio loved Italy and everything he did he did for the good of what he defined as 'my homeland'". Today Silvio is no longer here - comments Paolo Berlusconi - but he is present in all his urban, political and entrepreneurial achievements. Today Silvio is also here - he insists - 'our homeland is Italy he said but our future is Europe', so what better contribution to the memory of Silvio than to give his name to the gateway to Europe and the world?
Silvio Berlusconi can arouse criticism as well as appreciation and when the man is no longer with us the overall legacy is remembered, says the president of the Senate Ignazio La Russa at the naming ceremony. Stopping at what we liked or didn't like - he underlines referring to those who criticize the naming of the airport - would be a symbol of provincialism. La Russa indicates the "indelible mark that Silvio Berlusconi has left in entrepreneurship, communication and politics". I am happy to be able to speak on behalf of the parliament and the Senate - he clarifies - without merit but as the highest office of the State present to celebrate the choice of Silvio Berlusconi as a figure capable of interpreting the meaning of a city, a region and a nation that wants to fly high.
The vice-president of the council and minister of transport Matteo Salvini expresses "a minimum of regret for those absent" at the dedication celebration. An allusion, that of Salvini, to the mayor of Milan Giuseppe Sala, absent on the day of the dedication. From the ceremony stage in front of the station entrance he explains that "this is not a political day and we remember Berlusconi as one of the greatest Italian entrepreneurs". Berlusconi and Bossi, whose birthdays are celebrated a few days apart, "are two distant people - Salvini underlines - but also very close".
I hear someone complain about my absence - to tell the truth, my name is not mentioned, but the substance is the same - at the naming of Malpensa after Silvio Berlusconi, the reply in a note from Giuseppe Sala, who clarifies that he "fought against this decision, what should I have done? Be present, with a fake smile? Or be present and reiterate my distinctions? I am a coherent man and I try to remember this every day. I would like to point out that at the same time I was, with the Metropolitan mayor, in Inveruno to inaugurate a square in Piersanti Mattarella. I preferred to be there".
