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Italian citizens here and elsewhere can vote for parliament

Amato Berardi, a financial consultant who has lived most of his life in the Philadelphia area, is running hard for reelection - to the Italian parliament.

Amato Berardi
Amato BerardiRead more

Amato Berardi, a financial consultant who has lived most of his life in the Philadelphia area, is running hard for reelection - to the Italian parliament.

He's counting on voters here to help make it happen.

It's no joke. A quirk of the parliament is it reserves a small number of seats for representatives chosen by the 5.4 million Italian citizens who live in other countries.

Berardi, 54, who represents a chunk of territory more than twice the size of Europe, is charging through the final days of the campaign.

"It's nonstop," he said in an interview.

In two days of voting on Feb. 24-25, Italians will determine the composition of parliament, the 630 members of the Chamber of Deputies and the 315 elective members of the Senate. Eighteen seats are reserved to represent overseas residents - this is one of the few legislatures in the world to do so.

Twelve deputies and six senators will be picked from four gigantic voting districts: North and Central America, South America, Europe, and Africa, Asia, Oceania, and Antarctica.

In the North America region, 31 candidates are seeking three seats.

For Berardi, who runs Berardi & Associates in Bala Cynwyd and lives in Huntingdon Valley, that means mounting a campaign from Panama north through Mexico into the United States and all of Canada.

How do candidates do it? With difficulty.

Many turn to the Internet, sending out mass e-mails and posting on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. They buy ads in big Italian-language newspapers such as America Oggi, send direct mailings, make campaign appearances where possible, and count on friends everywhere to spread the word.

Berardi, who holds dual citizenship, relies on a database of 1.1 million potential voters. He accepts every chance to speak to groups such as the Sons of Italy and the National Italian American Foundation.

The key to election rests largely in four cities with big numbers of Italian voters: New York, Toronto, Montreal, and Philadelphia.

In 2008, New York delivered 15,213 votes, Toronto slightly more at 15,416, and Montreal 13,585. Philadelphia was fourth, posting 4,222 votes from about 15,000 eligible voters.

If the idea of electing someone here to serve in a government 4,300 miles away seems amusing, it's no joke to voters.

"A lot of Italians still have property there, and they feel they should vote," said Jody Della Barba, a South Philadelphia civic leader who was Mayor Frank Rizzo's secretary after he left office. "It's not like people left 500 years ago - they still have a connection to Italy."

Italian citizens living outside Italy have always had the right to vote - but had to physically travel there to do so. In 2001 a new law allowed voting by mail, and in 2006 overseas Italians were allowed to elect their own representatives.

Italians around the world have been asked to mail their ballots to their local consulates by about Monday. Votes received by Thursday will be shipped to Rome and counted. Locally, the Philadelphia consulate was open Sunday to help voters.

"In Philadelphia there's a special interest," said Consul General Luigi Scotto, whose Philadelphia office serves Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. "This town, if you'll allow me the expression, is very much Italian-oriented."

Indeed, the Italian Market was famous long before Rocky ran through it, and restaurants in South Philadelphia draw devoted clienteles. In 2011, 123,000 of the city's 1.5 million residents were of Italian ancestry - 8 percent of the population, down from 9 percent in 2000.

South Philadelphia has become far more diverse in recent years. Some shops in the Italian Market cater to a growing Mexican population, and nearby Asian food stores have signs written in Chinese, Vietnamese, and English.

Berardi, elected to his first five-year term as a deputy in 2008, commutes to parliament in Rome the way someone else might commute to their corporate headquarters in New York: Fly out on Monday, work 18-hour days, catch a flight home on Friday.

He said he has striven to enhance ties between Italian education authorities and U.S. universities, to reduce trade tariffs, and to increase cultural and language exchanges.

"The campaign is really difficult, because Italians are [mostly] scattered among 25 communities," said Dom Serafini, the editor of a TV trade publication in New York who is making his second try for office. "Every community is different. The community in Chicago is different from the community in Philadelphia."

Serafini, 63, came here in 1968 to study television. If elected, he wants to create more bilingual Italian schools in cities such as Philadelphia. He hopes to address Italy's soaring real estate taxes, painful to overseas residents who visit their properties a few times a year.

"It's important that we have a vote because we are forgotten," said Anna Mattei, who was born in Italy, lives in South Philadelphia, and holds dual citizenship. "I still have property from my parents that I'm taxed for."

Mattei wonders, though, how much influence the overseas candidates can exert. They make up a small portion of parliament, and each one has different priorities. Those from the United States may want more Italian schools, she said, while representatives from poorer nations see that as a luxury.

Berardi, born in Longano, was 12 when came to the city's Frankford section with his parents in 1970. After a career as a restaurant owner, he founded his insurance agency in 1983.

"I believe in giving back," he said, explaining his reasons for running. "There's a big renaissance, people here wanting to discover their roots and regain their citizenship."

Italian voters with questions can contact the Philadelphia consulate at 215-279-9579.