Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi accused his political opponent of not washing enough and being smelly at a local election campaign, the Telegraph reported. Berlusconi faces key local elections scheduled for Sunday and Monday which will determine the fate of his remaining two year term.

He said during a final rally in the southern city of Crotone: “The leaders of the Left don’t wash themselves much. When they go into the bathroom, and they don’t go often since they don’t wash much, they look in the mirror when they shave and surprise themselves.”

One of his opponents, leader of Italy’s center-left Democratic Party, responded: “If we don’t wash much, it’s because we are clean.”

According to the report, Berlusconi pays such keen attention to hygiene that he asked dancers to wash before performing sexy dances for him at his “bunga bunga” parties.

And he often launches personal attacks over his opponents’ looks – he called his female opponent “ugly” last year.

Berlusconi is involved in four trials; three are related to alleged tax fraud, corruption and embezzlement regarding his private media company and one for having sex with a prostitute who was a minor.

By Lee Woo-young (wylee@heraldcorp.com)