Iconic Italian actress announces Senate run

Gina Lollobrigida will run for Senate as the face of a newly-formed Euroskeptic party

Italian cinema legend Gina Lollobrigida announced on Saturday that she will run in September’s general election as an independent candidate under the banner of the newly-formed Euroskeptic alliance ISP (Sovereign and Popular Italy). She will represent the district of Latina, which is located south of Rome.  

ISP, which defines itself as “the only alternative to liberal warmongering and healthcare totalitarianism,” is backed by the Communist Party, Socialist Homeland, Civil Action, Ancora Italia and Riconquistare Italy. The group must net 3% of the votes in order to enter the parliament. Its platform opposes increased military spending, economic globalization, rampant privatization, and “health dictatorship,” and calls for a restoration of monetary sovereignty, denouncing the EU as “nothing more than a branch office on Wall Street.”

While Lollobrigida was connected with the newly-formed political party through her lawyer Antonio Ingroia, a former magistrate, it is not the 95-year-old star’s first attempt to enter politics. She ran for European Parliament in 1999 on the Democratici ticket, netting 10,000 votes but falling short of a victory.  

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Lollobrigida has acted in dozens of films, including ‘Beat the Devil’; ‘The Most Beautiful Woman in the World’; ‘Come September’; ‘Bread, Love and Dreams’; and ‘Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell’. She also worked as a photojournalist in the 1970s, scoring a coveted interview with Cuban leader Fidel Castro, and became an accomplished sculptor.  

Italy called snap elections for September after PM Mario Draghi announced his resignation last month and President Sergio Mattarella dissolved the parliament after initially refusing Draghi’s resignation. The ex-PM’s former coalition partners in government had withdrawn their support, balking at the rising cost of living amid the economic depression triggered by the Covid-19 containment policies and his support for arming Ukraine, which is deeply unpopular among Italians.