Italy's former royal family has asked the state to pay damages for the 54-year exile imposed on it by the 1948 constitution which founded the modern republic.
Speaking on Ballaro', a popular current affairs programme on RAI state television, Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy confirmed that his family has also asked for property confiscated by the nascent Italian state to be returned.
Lawyers for the Savoy family last month sent a seven-page letter containing the requests to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano and Premier Romano Prodi, the Ballaro' report said.
Initial reactions among Italian politicians were a mixture of disbelief and indignation.
''Is this a joke?'' asked Pino Sgobio of the Italian Communists' party, one of the hard-left parties in the centre-left government.
''The request should be sent straight back to them. It's ridiculous and offensive. It's the Savoys who should be paying compensation to Italy''.
Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy, the son of Italy's last king, and his son Emanuele Filiberto, reportedly want a total of 260 million euros in compensation for their exile, which ended in 2002 when parliament decided to allow them back.
They argue that by banning male members of the Savoy family from entering Italian territory, the constitution ran counter to the European Convention on human rights.
The Savoys reportedly intend to give any money they extract from the Italian state to charity.
An official at the premier's office said the government has no intention of paying the Savoys any money and is considering seeking damages from the ex-royal family for its actions before and during World War II.
LINKS TO FASCISM.
Italy's former royal family was banished in 1946 following a national referendum introducing the Republic, their name tainted by king Vittorio Emanuele III's links with Fascism.
Vittorio Emanuele's cousin, Amedeo Savoy Aosta, was quoted in the Corriere della Sera daily on Wednesday as saying he ''totally disapproved'' of the request for damages.
Prince Vittorio Emanuele, now 70, was nine years old when his father King Umberto II and mother Maria Jose' went into exile in Portugal.
The male members of the Savoy family were subsequently banned from entering Italy by the 1948 Constitution. But in November 2002, the Italian parliament lifted the ban.
Although the Savoy family now regularly visits Italy, Prince Vittorio Emanuele has maintained his Swiss residency while his son lives in Paris.
The prince's popularity in Italy has fluctuated. It hit a low point in 2006 when he was arrested and detained briefly in a vice probe. Several embarrassing telephone calls, taped by investigators, were published in the press.
But earlier this year he was cleared of charges of helping to recruit prostitutes from Eastern Europe for a casino in Campione d'Italia, an Italian enclave in Switzerland.
Before he was allowed to return to Italy, the prince's long campaign to get the Savoy ban lifted was damaged by his involvement in the 1978 death of a young German tourist.
Vittorio Emanuele was tried and eventually acquitted on manslaughter charges after he killed the tourist with a hunting gun following a quarrel at a Corsican marina.
His cause also suffered with the disclosure that he was a member of the secret masonic lodge Propaganda Due (P2), disbanded by parliament in 1982 on suspicion of illicit right-wing activities.
A host of top figures in the armed forces, politics and the media were found to be on the P2 rolls - including former premier Silvio Berlusconi who has always claimed he joined as ''a joke''.
Prince Vittorio Emanuele also did himself few favours a couple of years ago by playing down the impact of the 1938 Fascist race laws signed by his grandfather.
