>From CNN,
http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/05/08/italy.poll/index.html
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Italy's radicals raise clone debate
Radical Party leader Emma Bonino went on a five day hunger strike
May 8, 2001
Web posted at: 6:50 AM EDT (1050 GMT)
ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Minority parties in Italy are seeking to raise issues
largely ignored by mainstream politics in campaigning for this Sunday's
general election.
The Radical Party wants to turn the spotlight on euthanasia, therapeutic
cloning and freedom of scientific research.
But CNN's Alessio Vinci says these are issues that neither of the two main
candidates for prime minister have addressed.
As voting day approaches, Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right House of
Liberties coalition is maintaining a clear lead in opinion polls over
Francesco Rutelli's centre-left Olive Tree Alliance.
The Radical Party, lead by former European Union commissioner Emma Bonino,
has already successfully campaigned to legalise abortion and divorce in
Catholic Italy.
Bonino, in a protest against lack of media access, last week went on a
five-day hunger strike.
She said: "Because these are issues that go through all the coalitions, so
they are very much disturbing.
"Neither Berlusconi nor Rutelli want to be disturbed. so the expulsion from
the media of the radicals is simply instrumental."
To call more attention to the issue of free scientific research, the Radical
party is running Luca Coscioni for parliament. He is a former marathon
runner and university professor who in 1995 developed a severe form of
sclerosis.
Coscioni is campaigning for a change to Italy's laws on stem cell research,
which some scientists believe could speed cures to Parkinson's disease,
Alzheimer's and even some forms of cancer.
Stem cell research is currently allowed -- with restrictions -- in much of
Europe and in the United States, but prohibited in Italy.
The Radicals position has infuriated the Catholic Church. Monsignor Elio
Greccia, said: "(It is) the destruction of human embryos.
"Even if they are used to cure other human individuals, it represents ... a
murder of human individuals, even if at an embryo phase, and it represents a
sort of human cannibalism."
Right wing parties are attempting to focus on illegal immigration and
linking it with rising crime.
The mayor of Altivole in northeastern Italy, Gino Dalese, said: "Six or
seven years ago, before the immigrants arrived, we had no crime. Now our
cars get broken into and our houses get burgled."
Silvi Berlusconi feels the heat on the campaign trail
Rightist national alliance leader Gianfranco Fini has questioned why
immigrants have to be brought in to fill northern Italy's vacancies when
unemployment in the south of the country stands at a high 20 percent.
A United Nations report last year calculated Italy needed to take in nine
million immigrants over the next 25 years to keep its workforce at a viable
level.
Berlusconi's party published its manifesto on Monday, promising tax cuts,
more jobs and stronger economic growth.
The 85-page document included pledges to lighten Italy's tax burden by 70
trillion lire ($32 billion) and create 1.5 million jobs over five years.
Rutelli's party published its election pledges in April, promising broadly
similar goals, including tax cuts, tougher law and order and institutional
reform.
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