Euro election at a glance 28/5/09

DAY IN A NUTSHELL

The children of Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi have entered the row about his links to 18-year-old aspiring model Noemi Letizia. In separate statements they poured scorn on Dario Franceschini, leader of the opposition Democratic Party (PD), after he said: "I ask Italians - would you want your children brought up by this man?" The PD is currently trailing Mr Berlusconi's conservatives in the polls.

Polish opposition leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski has urged Poland's governing centre-right Civic Platform (PO) to pull out of the European People's Party (EPP), the main centre-right bloc in the European Parliament. He does not want Polish leaders to be allies of the CDU/CSU, which has appealed for the rights of Germans expelled from Poland at the end of World War II to be internationally recognised.

DAILY QUOTE

"Online voting means that more people can send a message to Brussels and take a stake in Europe."

(Libertas supporter Vahur Orrin, speaking on Estonia's first day of internet voting in the European elections.)

NEWS IN NUMBERS

The Young Greens in Cyprus are annoyed that the minimum age of candidates in the island's elections is set at 25, the Cyprus Mail reports. They want the age limit brought down to 21. Greece and Italy also demand that candidates be at least 25 years old. But in many EU member states the minimum age is 18, while in others, including the UK, it is 21.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that the far-right Jobbik party in Hungary is apparently on course to win at least one seat in the European Parliament. Jobbik, which has been accused of fuelling anti-Roma (Gypsy) feeling in Hungary, scored 5% and 6% in two recent opinion polls.

Day at a glance 27 May 09

DAILY PICTURE

A model sporting EU colours posed for Libertas outside the UK parliament, in a drive to get MEPs to reveal their expenses