Mussolini granddaughter back in elections

Alessandra Mussolini, the granddaughter of wartime dictator Benito Mussolini, will be allowed to stand in local elections in April after a court yesterday reversed a ban on her for allegedly forging signatures.

The decision is a potential blow to the coalition of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as she could split the centre-right vote at the key regional polls on April 3-4.

Ms Mussolini, head of the far-right Social Alternative party, will stand for the leadership of the Lazio region of which Rome is the capital.

She was initially banned from the poll after an electoral committee ruled that a petition supporting her candidacy contained hundreds of false signatures.

The ruling by a second appeals court poses a threat to the incumbent Lazio president, Francesco Storace, a member of the National Alliance (AN), a right-wing government party which broke with fascism during the 1990s.

In its bid to gain legitimacy as a mainstream conservative party, the AN denounced Benito Mussolini, leading to Ms Mussolini quitting the party in 2003 and forming her own.