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Plan to form new Mussolini party
The granddaughter of former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini says she is setting up a new party, after leaving the right-wing National Alliance.
Alessandra Mussolini quit the party - a partner in the government - after comments made this week by National Alliance leader Gianfranco Fini.
During a trip to Israel, Mr Fini called Mussolini's rule "disgraceful".
Ms Mussolini on Thursday said the party had become "incompatible with, and prejudicial to, my family name".
The 40-year-old parliamentarian announced her decision to form a new party in a brief statement on Saturday.
She gave no details, and told Ansa news agency that she would hold a series of consultations.
Family honour
The National Alliance is the second-biggest partner in Prime Minister's Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition.
Mr Fini is deputy prime minister.
He formed the party in 1995, after the Italian Social Movement (MSI) - the heir to Mussolini's fascists - split apart.
Mr Fini once described Benito Mussolini as the "greatest statesman of the 20th Century", but has long renounced fascist ideology.
During his visit in Israel he described Mussolini's rule as a "shameful chapters in the history of our people" and denounced as "disgraceful" the anti-Jewish laws approved in 1938.
Alessandra Mussolini reacted with outrage.
She said on Thursday that she was leaving the party, citing "incompatibilities not so much with my policies but rather with the family name I carry".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3250334.stm
The granddaughter of former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini says she is setting up a new party, after leaving the right-wing National Alliance.
Alessandra Mussolini quit the party - a partner in the government - after comments made this week by National Alliance leader Gianfranco Fini.
During a trip to Israel, Mr Fini called Mussolini's rule "disgraceful".
Ms Mussolini on Thursday said the party had become "incompatible with, and prejudicial to, my family name".
The 40-year-old parliamentarian announced her decision to form a new party in a brief statement on Saturday.
She gave no details, and told Ansa news agency that she would hold a series of consultations.
Family honour
The National Alliance is the second-biggest partner in Prime Minister's Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition.
Mr Fini is deputy prime minister.
He formed the party in 1995, after the Italian Social Movement (MSI) - the heir to Mussolini's fascists - split apart.
Mr Fini once described Benito Mussolini as the "greatest statesman of the 20th Century", but has long renounced fascist ideology.
During his visit in Israel he described Mussolini's rule as a "shameful chapters in the history of our people" and denounced as "disgraceful" the anti-Jewish laws approved in 1938.
Alessandra Mussolini reacted with outrage.
She said on Thursday that she was leaving the party, citing "incompatibilities not so much with my policies but rather with the family name I carry".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3250334.stm
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