Just three days away from Sunday's Italian general election, the man widely expected to win, the centre-right opposition leader, Mr Silvio Berlusconi, unveiled yet another weapon in his innovative campaign armoury when solemnly signing a "Contract with Italians" on television.
Appearing on the current affairs programme Door to Door on state TV RAI, Mr Berlusconi solemnly promised to retire from politics in 2006 if, during his five years in power, he failed to realise at least four of his five major programme priorities - lowering tax rates; raising minimum pensions; the creation of 1.5 million new jobs; the startup of at least 40 per cent of a number of mega-infrastructural projects, and strengthening the fight against street crime.
"This is a new kind of politics. Professional politicians usually think only of how to keep their jobs, not their promises," said Mr Berlusconi as he signed his "contract" in front of the cameras.
Underlining his sense of showmanship and tactical timing, Mr Berlusconi also sprang a surprise when he said the Ferrari chairman, Mr Luca De Montezemolo - the man who led Ferrari to last season's Formula One World Championship win - would serve in his cabinet.
Mr Berlusconi also confirmed that he would not, after all, be selling his Mediaset television holdings. Close collaborators had recently indicated that he might sell off his TV channels in order to resolve the celebrated "conflict of interests" prompted by his $14 billion Fininvest empire.
Mr Berlusconi, however, says that he will resolve the issue himself in his first 100 days in office by drafting legislation that would put his business empire in the hands of some sort of "blind trust".
Partly in response to Mr Berlusconi's latest campaign invention, the centre-left leader, Mr Francesco Rutelli, argued yesterday that the centre-right's economic programme of radical tax cuts would "take Italy out of Europe", implying that it would jeopardise Italy's adherence to the EU's stability pact.
Furthermore, in an interview in yesterday's Milan-based daily, Corriere Della Sera, Mr Rutelli reiterated some of the recent foreign media criticism of Mr Berlusconi, saying: "He simply does not have the stature. He's a frantic person, someone who loses control and someone of an unstable disposition. In this election campaign, he has failed the aptitudinal test for a head of government . . . His blind trust is simply a blind bluff . . ."
Reuters adds: The President of the European Commission, Mr Romano Prodi, yesterday emphasised Europe's faith in Italy, indicating that the EU would stand beside whichever political bloc wins a general election on Sunday. "Europe has always been fond of and has had faith in Italy," Mr Prodi, Italy's centre-left prime minister from 1996-1998, said on the sidelines of a conference in Florence. "Italy is one of Europe's fundamental countries. Europe does not exist without Italy and Italy does not exist without Europe," he said.