A popular Italian television programme has been axed after portraying women from Eastern Europe as submissive sex bombs who turn a blind eye to their husbands’ infidelities and love doing housework.

The chat show caused a furore after listing the supposed advantages for Italian men of marrying Eastern Europeans, including “They are always sexy, they don’t wear tracksuits or pyjamas during the day” and “They let the man take charge”.

The programme, “Parliamone sabato” or Let’s Talk About It On Saturday, claimed that women from East European countries “forgive infidelity”, “recover their figures after giving birth” and “learn housework from a young age, making them perfect housewives”.

It was part of a segment headlined “From the East with love – are they husband stealers or perfect wives?” But the programme, which aired on the national public broadcaster RAI, provoked outrage from viewers, commentators and politicians, who said it was profoundly sexist and demeaning to Eastern European women, hundreds of thousands of whom have settled in Italy in recent decades.

Romanians make up the largest population, but there are also many Albanians, Bulgarians and Serbs.