www.checkbiotech.org ; www.raupp.info ; www.czu.cz

No nuclear! No GM food! No to an alpine high-speed rail link and no to plans
for the world's longest bridge! In the run-up to an April election, Italy's
Greens have earned a reputation as the 'no' party, February 2006 by Robin
Pomeroy.

The party's leader, who is in line for a cabinet post if the opposition
wins in April, resents the negative image, but is happy to receive protest
votes from Italians disillusioned with five years of Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi.

"It is a caricature, but there is a value in 'no' - no to corruption, no to
war, no to swindles - it's a healthy 'no'," Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio told
Reuters in an interview.

"We also defend saying 'no' to the disastrous things that some people want
to do to this country."

The Greens, like other parties in the centre-left coalition headed by Romano
Prodi, oppose Berlusconi's plan for a 4-billion-euro ($4.83 billion) bridge
between Sicily and the mainland. The longest suspension bridge in the world
would be a waste of money and an environmental hazard, they say.

But the environmentalists also oppose many plans on which others parties in
Prodi's "Union" group are either unsure - such as nuclear power - or
heartily in favour - such as a high-speed rail link through the Alps.

How much sway the 46-year-old will have on these issues in a future Prodi
government will depend on how many votes he can bring to the coalition and
which ministries will go to the Greens.

Green cuisine

Pecoraro Scanio has set his sights high. "If the Greens do very well we
would ask for the Economy Ministry," he says.

Opinion polls suggest the Greens will maintain the 2 percent they polled in
2001, making it unlikely the party would take such an important seat.

Transport, environment or agriculture - the latter of which Pecoraro Scanio
headed in 2000-2001 - are more likely candidates for a Green minister, he
said.

Pecoraro Scanio admits the Greens in Italy have nothing like the voter
appeal they do in countries like Germany, as Italians tend to vote along
more traditional lines of left or right wing.

But high profile issues, such as the debate over whether energy-poor Italy
should lift its ban on nuclear power or the struggle against genetically
modified organisms (GMO?s), have raised awareness of environmental issues,
he said.

"There's a need to fuse environmental issues with Italian traditions, for
example defending quality agriculture and traditional food against GMO?s. If
you leverage the fact that Italy has a great culinary tradition people
understand the argument better.

"So there is a growth in (environmental) awareness but that doesn't always
get translated into votes," he said, acknowledging that April's election
will be won or lost largely on the economy.

But as many Italians voting for the Union will do so because they do not
accept Berlusconi's claim that he has improved the economy, Pecoraro Scanio
believes some of those votes will go to the 'no' party.

"If we were to put on our logo 'no to swindles' we would win more votes.
Italians are tired of saying yes to the idiocies of the government of the
right."

[www.planetark.com]

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