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April 17, 2008

Trans Candidate, Among Others, Ousted In Italian Election

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)

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