The granddaughter of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini has announced she will be a candidate for mayor of Rome in next month’s elections. Alessandra Mussolini ran in the April 9-10 parliamentary elections with a small right-wing party supporting conservative Premier Silvio Berlusconi.
Her party failed to make the threshold necessary to send lawmakers to parliament. At least
two other members of Berlusconi’s conservative coalition are running in the May 28-29 vote.
Mussolini urged the centre-right coalition to unite behind one candidate, indicating she might step
aside if the centre-right agreed on a single candidate. She said this was the best strategy to defeat
Mayor Walter Veltroni of the centre- left. Veltroni, a former deputy premier, is considered to be the
front-runner.
