Italian MP in hot water over preferring sailing to parliament

An Italian sailing champion turned MP faced a wave of criticism Tuesday after he justified his frequent absence from parliament by insisting he could also do politics from his boat.

Since his election in March, Andrea Mura of the ruling Five Star Movement (M5S) has turned up for only eight of the assembly’s 220 votes, monitoring website OpenPolis revealed.

Ugo Cappellaci, president of Sardinia, remarked that despite the absences, “I don’t think you’ve given up your parliamentary allowance.”

The 2010 “Italian Sailor of the Year” breezily rejected the criticism, telling media, “Political activity is not only conducted in parliament. You can also do it on a boat.”

Besides, he said, with “the overwhelming majority of the Five Star MPs in the Chamber of Deputies, it makes no difference whether I am present or not.”

The populist M5S and the League together have 341 seats in the 630-member lower house.

But in the face of a growing outcry, M5S leaders issued a statement telling the sailor that he must step down “if he wishes to continue overlooking the mandate given to him by citizens.”

However on Monday, Davide Casaleggio, son of one of the M5S founders, told Italian daily La Verita that the internet and evolving technologies were providing new tools for direct participation.

“Representative democracy will inevitably become obsolete,” he insisted.