The Italian community in Brazil will not have representatives in the Senate in Rome, according to the results of the parliamentary election. With the count completed on Monday morning (26), the most voted was the Argentine Mario Alejandro Borghese, who was already a deputy in the current legislature.
Elected by the Associative Movement for Italians Abroad (Maie), he received 58,233 votes and will occupy the only vacancy available for all of South America.
Neither former minister and former councilor Andrea Matarazzo nor two-time Formula 1 champion Emerson Fittipaldi, who ran for the Senate, were elected.
In Brazil, the right-wing coalition, as in Italy, finished first, with 37%. Fittipaldi got 31,386 votes. Matarazzo, for the Democratic Party coalition, was left with 27,202.
In the dispute for the two seats in the Chamber, the Italian-Brazilians managed to elect Fabio Porta, from the same ticket as Matarazzo, who obtained 22,436 votes. The other seat also went to Argentina, represented by Franco Tirelli, with 44,468 votes.
In the current legislature, the Italian-Brazilian community was represented by two deputies and one senator.
The result can be explained by the reduction in the total number of deputies and senators, approved in a referendum held in 2020. After cuts of 345 seats, there will be 600 seats in the Chamber and 200 in the Senate.
Brazil, where 418,000 Italian voters are registered, is part of the South American section, with 12 other countries. The seats reserved for parliamentarians elected in the region fell by half, from 6 to 3. Voters in these countries were able to choose only two deputies and one senator.
Having the largest number of Italian voters in the region, Argentina, with 756,000, gathers more strength to place representatives in Parliament. Historically, the most voted senator in the South American section has always been an Argentine-Italian.
In general, those elected abroad act to represent the interest of the Italian community in their countries and regions, with the same attributions as those elected in Italy. They are appointed on committees and can present projects. The monthly salary in the Chamber is around €16,000 (R$82,000), considering additional fees.
Matarazzo, 65, a former ambassador to Italy, launched himself into the country’s politics after being defeated in the last elections in Brazil — he left the PSDB in 2016 amidst the São Paulo caucuses and migrated to the PSD, for which he was not elected vice president. -mayor that year nor mayor in 2020.
In Parliament, he promised to foster economic ties between the two countries and fight for the creation of public policies to facilitate the entry of Brazilian students into European universities. The businessman ran for the Socialist Party, an ally of the Democratic Party, Italy’s main center-left acronym.
Fittipaldi, 76, joined the Brothers of Italy, by Giorgia Meloni. The acronym has its origins in post-fascism and an anti-immigration platform. The former pilot said, in an interview with Veja, that, in Parliament, he would try to “change the fascist image that the [presidente Jair] Bolsonaro has it in Europe.” He garnered support from deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP) and other Bolsonaristas, such as singer Sérgio Reis and RedeTV! partner Marcelo de Carvalho.
The former pilot is deep in debt and is responding to more than 100 lawsuits filed by creditors after a series of failed ventures. A UOL report showed that banks took from him a farm, a luxury apartment, a shed and a house; passport, trophies and historic cars would also have been confiscated. His debt is estimated to have reached R$50 million.
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