ROME — Former Italian porn star and member of parliament Cicciolina, is demanding that the government pay her pension.
The 60-year-old adult performer, whose real name is Ilona Staller, said she is entitled to her $53,000 a year pension for life after serving as a member of parliament with the libertarian Radical political party from 1987-92.
Cicciolina starred in more than 40 hardcore films and is best known for being the first woman to bare her breasts live on Italian television; for recording a song entirely about cocks and for offering sex to Osama bin Laden in return for stopping his terrorist acts.
The controversial star sponsored a number of bills that included establishing “love parks and hotels.”
But Italy is balking at the payout because of the country’s economic stress and is looking to cut government-backed pensions for former politicians under an overall austerity program.
According to British website the Guardian, critics claim that most Italian politicians get rich for doing nothing and care little about "people who work: people who often struggle to make ends meet and pay their taxes by doing real work.”
But Hungarian national Cicciolina, who is set to start receing her benefits in November said, "I earned it and I'm proud of it" citing five years of work in parliament where she had introduced 12 bills including measures to introduce sex education in schools, give prisoners conjugal visits and ban vivisection.
Although none became law, she claimed that back then it required more than one legislature to get a bill passed. "All politicians who are ex-members of parliaments get pensions for life and I think it is fair that I should too," Cicciolina said.
According to one recent estimate, Italy has an inordinate amount of elected representatives that cost taxpayers billions each year, and many of the recipients enjoy luxurious lifestyles.
