BBC News – Tuesday, 23 January 2007:

Young, good-looking, and available for around 150 euros (£100), more than 300 would-be protesters are marketing themselves on a German rental website.

They feature next to cars, DVDs, office furniture and holiday homes.

For some, these protesters show how soulless life has become. For others, they breathe new life into old causes.

A spokesperson for erento.com was unable to say how many demonstrators had been booked since the service was launched earlier this month, but that there had certainly been demand.

Organisations using the service are unlikely to reveal themselves, keen to pass off their protesters as genuine supporters of the cause. But German media reported a Munich march had hired protesters because its own adherents were too old to stand for hours waving banners.

“It seems to confirm the increasingly common assumption,” wrote one, “that democracy is for sale“.