The Italian
opposition leader expected to challenge Premier Silvio
Berlusconi in next year's election favors giving legal
status to unmarried couples and will push to include
the proposal in his center-left coalition's platform.
The pledge by Romano Prodi appeared in a letter sent
over the weekend to Italian gay rights group Arcigay.
Italy, an overwhelmingly Catholic country that
hosts the Vatican, does not recognize unions between
unmarried couples, including same-sex relationships.
Gay and lesbian associations have been pushing for
common-law couples to have legal recognition in hopes that
the move might pave the way for granting legal status
to gay couples as well. "I share with other party
leaders of the [center-left] coalition the hypothesis
of an overall proposal dealing with, regulating, and solving
the issue of de facto couples that are based on a bond other
than marriage," Prodi said in his letter. "This will
certainly find its place in the final program of the
Union," as the center-left coalition is known, said Prodi.
The comments were welcomed by Arcigay. Prodi, a
former premier and EU Commission president, is widely
expected to be Berlusconi's challenger in the
election, to be held in mid 2006. His center-left coalition
is leading in opinion polls. (AP)
