Tree huggers, eco-warriors, and stuffy scientists pushing for aviation taxes were all celebrating last night at the news that Silvio Berlusconi and his right-of-centre party the Pdl had won a landslide victory in the Italian elections. Or at least they should have been.

A central plank in Berlusconi’s election campaign was the refusal to sell the lumbering airline Alitalia to Air France, who, with a restructuring program planned to make the airline profitable (for the first time since 1984).

Berlusconi has made it clear that he intends to scupper the deal, to keep Alitalia in the hands of Italians (perhaps his own), and to maintain its proud record of service.

A company famous for overstaffing, poor service, and an admirable (from an environmental stance) record of strike action and flight groundings.

Call it a stealthily introduced aviation tax. Particularly given that the bill will eventually be paid, no doubt (despite huffing and puffing from the EU), by the Italian tax payer.