The Roman
princess didn't make it; the transgender lawmaker is out;
the self-professed Fascist is in.
There are some
fresh faces in the new Italian parliament and some
spectacular exclusions. Communists and Socialists are out
for the first time since World War II, as the number
of parties represented between the two houses has gone
from scores to about half a dozen.
''We are facing a
profound change not just of our political system, but
in our entire national history,'' the leading daily
Corriere della Sera said Wednesday.
The elections
that returned the conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi to
power also revolutionized the makeup of the Italian
parliament, traditionally fragmented in myriad small
parties and groups.
Analysts hailed
the development as extremely significant because it
simplifies a political landscape where even tiny parties had
excessive weight and leverage -- and thus potentially
increases government stability.
The two main
parties combined, Berlusconi's Freedom People and the
Democratic Party of losing candidate for premier Walter
Veltroni, attracted over 70% of the vote.
Most of the other
parties either were left with the crumbs, or failed
altogether to make the threshold for seats in parliament.
And as a result, several VIP candidates lost their
bids.
Roman Princess
Alessandra Borghese, whose family tree includes a
17th-century pope, ran for a Senate seat with a centrist
party. But the 44-year-old princess, who is close to
the pope, did not make it, although her party did win
three senate seats.
Also excluded was
the grandson of the last king of Italy, who had run to
represent Italians living abroad.
Among those who
won election was Santo Versace, who runs the business
side of the Versace fashion house and is the brother of
slain designer Gianni; and a veteran Rome businessman,
Giuseppe Ciarrapico, whose comments that he was a
lifelong and unrepentant Fascist embarrassed
Berlusconi's coalition during the campaign.
Other parties
that made the threshold are the Northern League, a
xenophobic party and key Berlusconi ally; the UDC centrist
party with strong connections to the Vatican; a small
party based in the south; the party of former
anticorruption magistrate Antonio Di Pietro; and a
handful of lawmakers representing linguistic minorities in
the north and Italians living abroad.
The extreme left
was the biggest loser in the election. The Rainbow Left
-- a grouping of Communists, Greens and other radicals --
failed to make the threshold. Gone are their key
representatives, including transgender Vladimir
Luxuria and outgoing Environment Minister Alfonso Pecoraro
Scanio. Longtime leader Fausto Bertinotti has stepped down
in shame at the poor showing.
It was an
embarrassing end for a party that was once the largest
Communist party in the West.
The Socialists
encountered a similar fate, winning less than 1%. The
Socialists had been in parliament since their party was
founded in 1892 -- except for a ban under the Fascist
regime -- and in countless governments in their heyday
in the 1980s. A slimmed-down party had survived the
fall of leader Bettino Craxi under the Clean Hands
corruption scandal in the 1990s. (Alessandra Rizzo, AP)
