Mussolini granddaughter runs for Italy Parliament

(AP) Mussolini granddaughter runs for Italy Parliament
ROME
A granddaughter of Benito Mussolini is running for Italy’s Parliament and defending the late fascist leader much like Silvio Berlusconi recently did.

Edda Negri Mussolini said in comments in Corriere della Sera Wednesday she is running on a ticket headed by Gianfranco Fini, a former neofascist ally of Berlusconi who is now a moderate backing Premier Mario Monti in February elections.

Negri Mussolini says she is proud of her grandfather for his doing “many good things,” including cleaning up malaria-plagued swamps near Rome. But she denounced as “monstrous errors” her grandfather’s anti-Jewish laws, dictatorship and violence. Berlusconi on Sunday provoked outrage when, attending a Holocaust commemoration, he said Benito Mussolini did much good despite the crackdown on Italy’s Jews.

Another granddaughter of the dictator, Alessandra Mussolini, already serves in Parliament.