Se eu pudesse, votava na ruiva

As candidatas de Berlusconi às europeias:

Even by his standards, though, Mr Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, has chosen a striking roster of candidates to give his party a new face for the European Parliament elections in June, including a Big Brother star and a Miss Italy contestant.

None has any known political experience although Angela Sozio, 36, a flame-haired former contestant of Grande Fratello, the Italian version of Big Brother, made the headlines two years ago when the paparazzi photographed her and other showgirls strolling hand-in-hand with Mr Berlusconi, 72, at Villa Certosa, his villa in Sardinia.

The future politicians also include Eleonora Gaggioli, an actress best known for her role in the popular television costume drama Elisa di Rivombosa;

Camilla Ferranti, who appeared in Incantesimo, a soap opera set in a cosmetic surgery clinic,

and Barbara Matera, who competed in the heats for the 2000 Miss Italy contest and went on to become an announcer on the state television channel Rai.

The photographs, which appeared in the mass circulation magazine Oggi under the headline “Berlusconi’s Harem”, showed some of the women sitting on the Prime Minister’s knee. He insisted that he was being hospitable in showing the women round his seaside estate while his wife, the former actress Veronica Lario, was at her villa near Milan.