A plan to name a street after former prime minister Bettino Craxi has sparked controversy in Italy, which remains divided 10 years after his death on whether to remember him as a great statesman or a corrupt criminal.
Italy's longest serving postwar premier until Silvio Berlusconi broke the record, Craxi became a symbol of the "Tangentopoli" bribery scandals in the 1990s. He was convicted in absentia after fleeing to Tunisia, dogged by graft charges.
Debate over the Socialist leader's place in Italian history erupted again this week when Milan's mayor proposed naming a street or park in his honour to mark the 10th anniversary of his death in Tunisia in 2000 -- angering a top opposition figure.
"If they really want to have a plaque, they should write 'Bettino Craxi, politician, convicted, fugitive' because that's the story of this person," said Antonio Di Pietro, an opposition leader who rose to fame as an anti-corruption prosecutor in the "Tangentopoli" scandal.
The issue triggered more political sparring as lawmakers close to Berlusconi -- who was both a longtime friend and beneficiary of Craxi's business policies -- attacked Di Pietro for "insulting" his legacy and newspapers speculated over why other opposition leaders had kept silent on the issue.
"I have a proposal -- let's name not just one street after Bettino Craxi in his Milan hometown, but many Italian streets and squares," said cabinet minister Gianfranco Rotondi.
"Only then can Italy pay homage and remember his legacy."
Berlusconi, who has kept a low profile since being hit in the face with a souvenir this month, in the past has praised Craxi as a great statesman who boosted Italy's profile on the world stage and sucessfully tamed high inflation.
An informal poll by Italian television channel Sky TG24 today showed Italians split exactly in half over whether it was right to name a street after Craxi.
Prime minister from 1983 to 1987, Craxi was convicted in two cases and had several other probes pending on charges of illegal party funding, the crime at the heart of the corruption scandals of the 1990s. He argued all parties enjoyed illicit funding.
Just before Craxi fled for Tunisia in 1994, a seething crowd pelted him with coins and screamed "thief" as he left his Rome hotel. He died in Tunisia of a heart attack, bitter that he was not allowed to spend his final days in Italy as a free man.
Massimo Pini, an Italian businessman who wrote a biography of Craxi, said the Italian leader never returned home because he feared he would be poisoned in his jail cell.
"He was convinced that in Italy they would have thrown him in jail in a humiliating fashion. And that sooner or later they would have administered him a cup of coffee," Pini told the Corriere della Sera newspaper.