Alessandra Mussolini - Political Career

Political Career

In 1992, she was elected to parliament in a Naples constituency as a member of the Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI).

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, never were very good, she announced; she then withdrew later, her resignation due to differences with him at least once. She unsuccessfully challenged him for leadership of the party when he withdrew support for Benito Mussolini in a television interview in January 2002.

Mussolini suddenly left National Alliance on 28 November 2003, following the visit of party leader and the Deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini to Israel, where he described fascism as "the absolute evil" as he apologised for Italy's role as an Axis Power during the Second World War. Mussolini however defended the right of Israel to exist and declared that the world "should beg forgiveness of Israel".

Following her resignation, Mussolini formed her Social Action party, originally named "Freedom of Action", and organised a coalition named Social Alternative. The move was read in the Italian media as surprising move because of Mussolini's "progressive" stances on many issues, including abortion, artificial insemination, gay rights and civil unions. She has been an outspoken "feminist" and has been described by conservative commentators as a "socialist" and a "left-winger".

In the European Parliament Election, 2004 her electoral list, Social Alternative, gained 1.2% of the vote. Mussolini herself received 133,000 preference votes.

In response to a comment made by UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom where he said that "No self-respecting small businessman with a brain in the right place would ever employ a lady of child-bearing age. That isn't politically correct, is it, but it's a fact of life. The more women's rights you have, it's actually a bar to their employment." and: "I just don't think clean behind the fridge enough," Mussolini responded by saying

I know the English have a sense of humor 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.

In March 2005, Mussolini was banned by a local court from regional elections held the following month for presenting fraudulent signatures. "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. Mussolini went on a hunger strike to protest the decision. However, at the end of the month Italy's top administrative court, the Council of State, annulled the decision and she stood for election.

In 2006 she responded to claims by the transgender Italian M.P. candidate Vladimir Luxuria that she was a 'fascist' with the line "Meglio fascista che frocio" ("It is better to be a fascist than a faggot").

In November 2007, remarks by Mussolini triggered the collapse of the far-right Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty grouping within the European Parliament. Mussolini declared that all Romanians were criminals in remarks regarding immigration policy. This prompted delegates from the Greater Romania Party to quit the group, bringing the group below the minimum number of members to qualify as a caucus and receive Parliament funding.

After the Italian general elections of April 2008, Mussolini serves as a member of the Italian parliament within Silvio Berlusconi's alliance of right wing parties, The People of Freedom.

Mussolini condemned the Vatican's comparison of homosexuality with pedophilia, stating "You can't link sexual orientation to pedophilia ... this link risks becoming dangerously misleading for the protection of children."