Elena Basescu

Elena Basescu prances down the catwalk, goes clubbing until the wee hours and mangles her grammar. So is she just what the European Parliament needs? She's running for a seat, though one critic has dismissed her as a Barbie doll. Basescu's father happens to be Romanian President Traian Basescu. And Romanians are riveted by the daughter's dive into politics.

At 28, Elena Basescu is no typical politician. But with her bee-stung lips, waist-length hair and trendy clothes, she gets almost as much coverage as her father. Not all the attention is favorable. Observers say she lacks experience and stumbles when she speaks. Her candidacy has been derided as a ploy to win votes for the Democratic Liberal Party, which her father used to run.

"She was proposed by people who wanted to suck up to Basescu," Vasile Matei, a history professor in the city of Dej, said Wednesday. "Romania can't fight for its interests with a Barbie doll." Matei predicted her candidacy would be withdrawn. Others hope he's right: Alina Mungiu Pippidi, a sober intellectual, said she would not run for the European Parliament if Basescu was on the same slate. "Save Elena Basescu!" ran a column in the Evenimentul Zilei daily newspaper Tuesday. "Elena Basescu needs a project, not a seat in Parliament."