Alessandra Mussolini

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Photograph of Alessandra Mussolini from the European Parliament.

Alessandra Mussolini (born December 30, 1962, Rome) is an Italian politician and Member of the European Parliament.

1 Family background
2 Acting career
3 Political career
4 Marriage and family
5 Education
6 Quotes
7 Filmography
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Family background

Alessandra Mussolini is the daughter of Anna Maria Scicolone and Romano Mussolini, the third son of "Il Duce", fascist leader Benito Mussolini. Her aunt is the actress Sophia Loren.

[edit] Acting career

Cover of Playboy (Italian edition) of August 1983, featuring Mussolini.

She pursued an early career as an actress and topless model [1]. She appeared on two covers of European editions of Playboy magazine: Italian Playboy for August 1983, which exploited her family relations with the headline "The Granddaughter of Il Duce--Alessandra Mussolini--the Boldness of Grandfather Benito, the sex appeal of Aunt Sophia Loren." [2], and the German Playboy for November 1983 [3], where she performs a striptease. She has been quoted as saying "When you are an actress, you are dealing with the body. Every actress does topless and stuff like this; you have to."[4] Sophia Loren acted alongside her in several of her films. [5]

She later graduated from university with a degree in Medicine and Surgery.

[edit] Political career

In 1992, she was elected to parliament in a Naples constituency as a member of the neofascist Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI). She was favorable to the idea of an alliance between MSI and Forza Italia with a view to the elections of 1994, but she opposed the liquidation of the MSI and the creation of the new party Alleanza Nazionale.

She later was a candidate for the post of mayor of Naples, but was defeated by Antonio Bassolino. Her relations with Gianfranco Fini, leader of the Alleanza Nazionale (National Alliance party), never were very good, she announced; she then withdrew later, her resignation due to differences with him at least once.[6] This antagonism was exacerbated when Fini criticized some aspects of fascism, such as its anti-semitism. She unsuccessfully challenged him for leadership of the party when he withdrew support for Benito Mussolini in a television interview in January of 2002. [7] [8]

In November 2003 Fini paid a visit to Israel. There he declared that fascism had been "the absolute evil", apologizing to the government of Israel for the racial laws that Benito Mussolini had approved in 1938. Shortly after these declarations, Alessandra Mussolini abandoned Alleanza Nazionale.

She then founded a new party of the extreme right, Libertà di Azione ("Freedom of Action") (now called Social Action), which united with other neo-fascist movements and gave rise to the electoral cartel Alternativa Sociale (Social Alternative). At the European elections of 2004, this coalition obtained 1.2% of the vote, permitting Alessandra to be elected to the European parliament.

In March 2005, Mussolini was banned by a local court from regional elections held the following month for allegedly presenting fraudulent signatures [9]. "This is an affront to democracy, if they're going to exclude the Social Alternative they will have to exclude all the parties, because all the signature lists are false," Mussolini told Reuters [10]. Mussolini went on a hunger strike to protest the decision. [11] However, at the end of the month Italy's top administrative court, the Council of State, annulled the decision and she stood for election. [12]

In 2006 she responded to criticism by trans-gender Italian M.P. candidate Vladimir Luxuria, with a line "Meglio fascista che frocio", that has been roughly translated as "It is better to be a fascist than a faggot." The Italian word used, "frocio", is considered an insult referring to one's buttocks. [13] The fascist party has been criticized on several occasions for manifestly anti-homosexual stances.

She is a member of following European Parliament committees and delegations:

Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs
Delegation for relations with the Mashreq countries
Delegation to the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly

She also is an Honorary Member of the Italian Red Cross.

[edit] Marriage and family

She married customs police officer Mauro Floriani on 28 October 1989. [14] They have three children, Caterina, Clarissa, and Romano Floriani. They bear their father's surname, but she went through a complex legal process to allow them to attach her last name to theirs, and has campaigned for Italian law to be changed to allow all children to take their mother's last name should they so wish. [15]

[edit] Education

American Overseas School of Rome 1976-1980 High School
John Cabot University 1980-1984 B.A. Agricultural Science
Universita' Di Rimini 1984-1986 M.A. Film Management
American University of Rome Ph.D. Chemistry

[edit] Quotes

"So che gli Inglesi hanno il senso dell’autoironia, ma io sono napoletana e posso dire che noi donne sappiamo cucinare e pulire i frigoriferi e facciamo anche politica, mentre forse Godfrey Bloom non sa né pulire i frigoriferi, né fare politica."

"I know the English have a sense of humour about themselves, but I am from Naples and I can say that we women do know how to cook and clean the refrigerator and even be politicians, while perhaps Godfrey Bloom does not know either how to clean the refrigerator or how to be a politician"
Thursday 22 July 2004 - Strasbourg
Statement by the President-designate of the Commission (continuation)

[edit] Filmography

Before entering politics, Mussolini appeared in the cinema as an actress.

Bianco rosso e (1972)
Una Giornata particolare (1977)
Il Caso Pupetta Maresca (1982, TV)
Il Tassinaro (1983)
Qualcosa di biondo (1984)
The Assisi Underground (1985), playing a nun rescuing Jews from Benito Mussolini's fascists
Ferragosto O.K. (1986, TV)
Noi uomini duri (1987)
Vincere per Vincere (1988, TV)
Pupetta Maresca (1988, TV)
Sabato domenica e lunedì (Saturday, Sunday, Monday, 1990, TV)
Derech L'Ein Harod, Ha (1990)
The neo-fascist Trilogy II: In the Name of the Duce (1994)