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Sweden's Pirate Party wants free access to the internet by reforming copyright law and the patent system. They don't see the added value necessarily of the EU, the EU seems very remote, far away from their day-to-day concerns." "We've seen an effort in France, but also in other countries, to put recognisable faces out there to give voters something to latch on to, because voter apathy is a problem. Julia Decleck-Sachsse from the Centre for European Policy Studies thinks fresh and recognisable faces could be an antidote to apathy.
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In the meeting rooms and corridors of Brussels, there is a lot of animated and fairly anguished talk about how much legitimacy the European Parliament can claim if, as expected, only a third of the voters turn up at the ballot. With turnout expected to hit an all-time low, many agree that Europe needs a more attractive face.
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Barbara Matera, a former Miss Italy contestant and TV presenter, remains on the list. Mr Berlusconi fought back, insisting he would not accept any "smelly and badly dressed candidates". She later sued for a divorce over her husband's links to an aspiring model. Not Mr Berlusconi's wife, who described the choice of several busty beauties as potential Euro-candidates as "a shameless diversion for the emperor". "Thank god we've got Silvio!" goes the chorus of the party's anthem, and up to 40% of Italians seem to agree. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is the only leader of a big country to run in the election, heading the list of his centre-right party, the People of Freedom (PdL). Although, after protests by other candidates from her father's Liberal Democrat party, Miss Basescu has had to run as an independent, she wasted no time in gathering 200,000 signatures for her candidacy.īut Italy has done most to spice up the European campaign. Video clips of her verbal gaffes are internet hits. She is known to be more interested in parties than party politics. The political future of another sexy celebrity looks more doubtful.Įlena Basescu wears more modest fashions now to fit her new imageĭubbed "the Paris Hilton of Romania", Elena Basescu, 28, is a former model with waist-long black hair who also happens to be the youngest daughter of the country's president. And in time, she may become a force to reckon with in the European Parliament's dominant centre-right bloc. I did well, didn't I?"Īs number two on the list of the governing UMP party, Rachida Dati is bound to do well. At a recent campaign meeting, asked if Europe meddled too much in national affairs, Ms Dati gave this answer, amid giggles: "It (Europe) looks after those things that we ask it to look after, with the people who are asked to look after them. Once a protegee of President Nicolas Sarkozy, she has become so unpopular that he wants her out, so he made her run in the European election. Take Rachida Dati, the glamorous French justice minister and the first Muslim woman to get such a powerful post. The election is a time for shock tactics and charm offensives, anything to get out the vote for an assembly that few people understand - perhaps not even the candidates. Rachida Dati is no longer the rising star of the Sarkozy administration
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