ONTD Political

It's probably one of the few occasions when sleeping on the job would be positively encouraged.

Afterall, if Licia Ronzulli's baby did wake up, she would prove something of a distraction to other members of the European Parliament.

Mrs Ronzulli, an MEP from Italy, took her tiny daughter Victoria to a vote at Strasbourg. She kept her baby carefully cradled against her in a sling and occasionally leant to kiss her on the forehead.

The 35-year-old was taking advantage of relatively relaxed rules that allow women to take their baby to work with them.

However, the trend seems unlikely to catch on at Westminster.

Mrs Ronzulli won her seat in last year's elections and is a member of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom Party.

Victoria was born on August 10. Her father is also a member of People of Freedom and he is called Renato Cerioli.

Mrs Ronzulli is from the Lombardy region of northern Italy and won her seat with 40,000 votes.

She and her husband are close friends of Berlusconi - in fact he was a witness at the couple's wedding.

She is a member of the environment, health and food safety commission in Strasbourg and has also worked as a nurse in Milan and Bangladesh before become a hospital director and then turning to politics.

SWISS CABINET HAS FEMALE MAJORITY FOR FIRST TIME

Women now control a majority of the seats in Switzerland's executive branch, less than four decades after the country became one of Europe's last to grant women the right to vote in national elections.

Social Democract lawmaker Simonetta Sommaruga was elected to the Cabinet in a fourth round of parliament voting Wednesday.

A battle over a second vacant seat was scheduled for later Wednesday, but Sommaruga's win gives women four of the seven posts in Switzerland's unique ruling Cabinet.

Swiss women have participated in national votes since 1971, after Swiss men granted women full suffrage in a nationwide referendum. One Swiss canton, Appenzell Inner-Rhodes, blocked women from local elections until 1990.

Daily Mail - not the best source, but it had better pictures. There's also a BBC article about this.