Berlusconi announces new alliance with political firebrand

The Italian media tycoon and former PM Silvio Berlusconi made a surprise announcement in Milan yesterday that he was dissolving Forza Italia!, the right-wing party he has led for the past 14 years, to replace it with a new, broader movement he is calling the Party of the Italian People of Freedoms.

Berlusconi, 71, made the announcement in a crowded piazza surrounded by supporters with the unlikely figure of Michela Brambilla at his side - the stunning redhead who, as reported here in August, he has taken under his wing as a political partner.

Berlusconi's announcement follows a widely publicised petition organised by Forza Italia!, demanding the resignation of Romano Prodi's centre-left government. Berlusconi claimed that 7m Italians had signed the petition.

His partnership with the 39-year-old Brambilla began last November when he chose 'La Rossa' - as she is nicknamed in the Italian media - to launch a network of 15,000 political clubs, known as Freedom Circles. She scandalised TV viewers with an appearance on a political chat show in which she flashed the top of her stockings while wearing an ultra-mini skirt, and has admitted to an outspoken manner, saying: "No one can shut my mouth." ·