That would be far beyond most of the country's 200-odd parties, the majority of which are tiny outfits, often devoted to promoting bizarre ideas or people, or both.

ECONOMIST: Russia

The Earth's population is expected to increase by half over the next four decades, to around 9 billion, and most of the additional 3 billion-odd hungry mouths will be in developing countries, especially tropical ones.

ECONOMIST: Seeing the wood

The majority of locals spend evenings looking beautiful, checking each other out, partaking of the odd ice cream, and not getting drunk - that would be most unseemly.

BBC: An evening out in Rome

Still, he is in the odd position of claiming to be an instinctive tax-cutter, while running one of the most punitive regimes for high earners in Europe.

ECONOMIST: A fresh political row over the taxation of high earners