Italy: Mussolini's granddaughter hands out signed photos of 'Duce' in parliament

Rome, 13 June (AKI) - Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of Italy's wartime dictator Benito Mussolini, was filmed signing photos of 'Il Duce' and giving them to another MP during a confidence vote in the lower house of parliament on Wednesday.

During the vote on a government anti-corruption bill, a paparazzi snappped Mussolini signing two black and white photos of her grandfather handed to her in an envelope by the Northern League lawmaker Carolina Lussana.

In the photos published on several Italian dailies' websites, 49-year-old Mussolini can be seen scribbling a dedication on both photos of her grandfather and handing them back to Lussana.

In the first photo, the uniformed 'Duce' gives the fascist salute while in the second he strikes a characteristically belligerent pose astride a tank.

Mussolini, currently an MP for ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's convervative People of Freedom party, is the daughter of Romano Mussolini, fourth son of 'Il Duce' and Anna Maria Villani Scicolone, the filmstar Sophia Loren's sister.

No stranger to controversy and a former glamour model and actress, Mussolini has never hidden her admiration for her grandfather. Responding to taunts by the transgender Italian MP candidate Vladimir Luxuria in 2006 that she was a fascist, she famously retorted: "Better to be a fascist than gay."