Sonny Colbrelli enters regional politics with Berlusconi's Forza Italia

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Sonny Colbrelli enters regional politics with Berlusconi's Forza Italia

Sonny Colbrelli has decided to run for the Forza Italia party led by Silvio Berlusconi in regional elections in northern Italy after heart problems ended his professional racing career in 2022.

Colbrelli, a former Bahrain Victorious racer and Paris-Roubaix winner, was nominated as a candidate to represent Lombardy in the regional elections, which include Milan and Colbrelli's home town of Valle Sabbia, near Brescia.

Colbrelli is one of the ten Forza Italia candidates for regional representation, the so-called "La Presentanti del Territorio," but his chances of winning remain slim, with only one or two people being elected in the region.

Three current representatives are also running again, one of whom is reportedly endorsing Colbrelli, perhaps in a consensus move. Colbrelli may ultimately decide to step aside and throw his support behind another candidate closer to the February election date. [Colbrelli has taken on a technical and ambassadorial role with the Bahrain Victorias team to start his life as a former rider after suffering an unstable and irregular pulse in the spring.

After suffering a sudden unstable arrhythmia at the Volta a Catalunya in March, Colbrelli was fitted with a subcutaneous defibrillator. This device stabilizes the heartbeat if the arrhythmia occurs again, but does not allow him to compete in races.

Lombardy and Brescia are controlled by right-wing Italian parties, and Forza Italia and the Northern League recently joined forces with the nationalist party "Italian Brothers" to win national elections.

Colbrelli reportedly said he is a "Berlusconi fan," despite the 86-year-old Berlusconi's conviction for tax fraud and being embroiled in multiple scandals.

In 2014, Colbrelli posted a comment on Facebook suggesting that former fascist dictator Mussolini was needed to deal with the influx of migrants into Italy. He later deleted the post and said he regretted it, denying that it had any political or racial overtones.

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