Ottavia Penna Buscemi (12 April 1907 – 2 December 1986) was an Italian politician. She was elected to the

Constituent Assembly A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...

in 1946 as one of the first group of women parliamentarians in Italy. Soon afterwards, she was the first woman to be nominated as a candidate to what would become the

presidency A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified b ...

Biography

Penna Buscemi was born in

Caltagirone Caltagirone (; or ; ) is an inland city and municipality () in the Metropolitan City of Catania, on the island (and region) of Sicily, Southern Italy, about southwest of Catania. It is the fifth most populous municipality of the Metropolita ...

in 1907, the daughter of the noble couple Francesco Penna, (Baron of Portosalvo) and Ines Crescimanno Maggiore (Duchess of Albafiorita). After growing up in Caltagirone, she attended college in Poggio Imperiale and the Trinità dei Monti in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. She returned to her hometown and married Filippo Buscemi Galasso, a doctor.Ottavia Penna
Enciclopedia delle donne Following the war, Penna Buscemi was a

Common Man's Front The Common Man's Front (, FUQ), also translated as Front of the Ordinary Man, was a short-lived right-wing populist, monarchism, monarchist and anti-communism, anti-communist political party in Italy. It was formed shortly after the end of the W ...

candidate in the

general elections A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. General elections ...

on 2 June 1946, in which she was one of 21 women elected to the Constituent Assembly. On 28 June she was her party's nominee in the election for a head of state, the first woman to be a candidate for what would become the

; she finished third in the voting behind Enrico De Nicola and Cipriano Facchinetti. In November 1947 she left her party to join the National Union. She did not run for re-election in the 1948 elections, but was elected as a municipal councillor in Caltagirone in the 1953 local elections as a member of the

Monarchist National Party The Monarchist National Party (, PNM) was a list of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy founded in 1946. It was a right-wing competitor to Christian Democracy (Italy), Christian Democracy and was especially strong in Southern Ital ...

. She died in the city in 1986.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Penna Buscemi, Ottavia 1907 births People from Caltagirone Common Man's Front politicians Members of the Constituent Assembly of Italy Candidates for President of Italy National Union (Italy, 1947) politicians Monarchist National Party politicians 1986 deaths Politicians from the Metropolitan City of Catania 20th-century Italian women politicians