Scenes from Italy's electoral campaign

* Alessandra Mussolini (granddaughter of "il duce" Benito Mussolini, niece of world-famous actress Sophia Loren and leader of the extreme right-wing movement Alternativa Sociale) roars:

"I'd rather be a fascist than a faggot!"

Drag queen-turned-politician Vladimir Luxuria had been questioning Mussolini's rather clumsy stance on gay rights during a televised debate.


* Umberto Bossi, founder and master of the Northern League, says:

"The program of the leftist opposition tastes of vaseline."

It is not clear whether he was referring to the leftist vague proposals to recognize "civil unions" (a sort of common-law partnership status for registered same-sex couples), or if he was referring to the leftist vague economic policy plans, implying there will be more taxes. Touché, anyway.


* Incumbent Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi storms out of a TV studio after interviewer (and former RAI chief) Lucia Annunziata gets on his (many) raw nerves. Watch the video here.


* Silvio Berlusconi later clarified his own concept of Q&A session when he attended a meeting of Confindustria, the association of Italian entrepreneurs and manufacturers. Watch his very embarrassing show here.


* Silvio Berlusconi asserts that Chinese Communists used to boil children as a substitute for manure. Beijing did not appreciate.


* In the first televised debate between incumbent Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his opponent Romano Prodi (the former President of the European Commission), the latter says:

"He's been in government for five years and yet he talks as if he were in the opposition. Is such a deceit of the public admittable? What has he been doing in these five years, with a parliamentary majority of 120 seats? Did he only pass bills that suited him well?"

* (Update, March 29: Silvio Berlusconi against former EU Commissioner Emma Bonino of the Rosa nel pugno alliance. Watch the video here.)


* (Update, April 4: Silvio Berlusconi says:

"I esteem so much the intelligence of the Italian people that I cannot believe there are around so many assholes who could vote against their interest."

Enjoy the Prime Minister as he uses this "playful" wording here.)