Italians go to the polls at the weekend after an election campaign for the European Parliament and a number of local offices in which political issues were overshadowed by allegations surrounding Premier Silvio Berlusconi's private life.
The premier spent much of his campaign denying there had been anything unseemly in his friendship with a teenage aspiring model and justifying the fact that he brought guest passengers on his state flights.
Because of the tone of the campaign, in which he accused the opposition and even the foreign press of seeking to smear him, observers believe that Berlusconi will want the outcome of the vote to confirm his popularity among Italians and thus politically exonerate him of any wrongdoing.
However, many believe the 'gossip politics' of the campaign has turned off a lot of voters who will not bother going to the polls.
Berlusconi's center-right People of Freedom (PdL) party held a clear lead in the latest polls and rather than the opposition Democratic Party (PD), pundits said its real rival appeared to be its government partner the Northern League.
This apparently because of the Northern League's strong anti-immigration message.
The PdL and devolutionist Northern League are said to be running neck-in-neck in the industrial Italian northeast but both parties say that they will remain allies in Rome no matter what the outcome this weekend.
The PD has run its campaign mostly attacking Berlusconi's moral judgement and his government's track record, but it, too, appears to have its most formidable rival for votes not in the PdL but in the Italy of Values (IdV) party of former Clean Hand prosecutor Antonio Di Pietro, the second most important opposition party.
Di Pietro has emerged as Berlusconi's most vocal opponent attacking the premier, even personally, on both political and moral grounds.
The centrist UDC party of ex-House speaker Pier Ferdinando Casini leads a host of smaller parties which have the primary objective of surpassing the 4% threshold to win a seat in Strasbourg.
While the UDC is expected to win some seats, parties and alliances on the far Left and Right appear to be set to suffer the same fate they did in last year's Italian general elections and come out empty handed.
The 4% cutoff for the EP elections was adopted in February, by the parliament elected last year, to make it the same as for general elections.
EP elections are being held between June 4 and 7 in the 27 European Union countries.
Italy is voting June 6 and 7.
There are a total of 736 EP seats up for grabs, 78 of which will go to Italy.
