What are we to make of the news coming out of Italy? Showgirls are put up for parliament; Silvio Berlusconi, prime minister, pursues a controversial relationship with a teenage girl from Naples while undergoing a very public divorce; there are revelations of wild parties involving call girls; and photographs emerge of topless women and pantless politicians at Mr Berlusconi’s Sardinian villa.

Certainly, it is the summer’s most entertaining political story and tends to be seen simply as confirmation that Italian politics is a kind of incomprehensible opera buffa. Yet while the details are lurid and often funny, it is also possible to discern the outlines of something rather horrifying with implications that extend beyond Italy.