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ROME - As he prepares to celebrate his 71st birthday next month, Silvio Berlusconi has appalled mainstream rivals for leadership of Italy's centre-right by blessing a new political party started by a 39-year-old former beauty queen.
Michela Vittoria Brambilla, who started a network of political clubs last November, said she registered the Freedom Party (PDL) and its logo with the European Union on August 6 "on Silvio Berlusconi's mandate".
The party and its symbol - a circle with a rainbow bearing the colours of the Italian flag and the name Partito della Liberta - were now at the "complete disposal" of the television magnate and opposition leader, she said.
Berlusconi recently was fitted with a pacemaker and has slowed down since his knife-edge electoral defeat by Romano Prodi, the centre-left Italian Prime Minister, in April last year.
Commentators say the flamboyant, red-headed Brambilla, a one time Miss Italy contestant, has been gaining in popularity among centre-right voters who find her youth and directness refreshing.
The new Freedom Party would group moderates who belong to the country's main right-wing parties, including Berlusconi's Forza Italia, La Stampa newspaper reported.
- Independent
