Green deputies in the EuropeanParliament plan a symbolic protest next week when Italian PrimeMinister Mr Silvio Berlusconi outlines his country's plans for itssix-month presidency of the European Union from July 1st.
Environmentalist lawmakers will hoist banners proclaiming"La legge e uguale per tutti" (The law is equal for all) whenthe media magnate-turned-politician addresses the EU legislaturein Strasbourg on Wednesday, party sources said.
Mr Berlusconi, who was on trial in Milan for allegedly bribingjudges, has just rushed legislation through parliament grantinghimself and four other top state officials immunity fromprosecution while in office.
The Greens' gesture - the first such demonstration againstan EU president in the chamber since leftists denounced FrenchPresident Jacques Chirac's resumption of nuclear tests in 1995- reflects a wider unease in the EU over the Italian leader.
"Mr Berlusconi has already committed a number of mortal sinstowards the EU," said Mr Helmut Weixler, spokesman for the Greens'parliamentary group.
"We think it's a bit like letting the fox into the chickencoop," he said, listing the immunity law, the concentration ofmedia power in Mr Berlusconi's hands and Italy's failure to respectsome EU environmental directives.
With the exception of the European People's Party, of whichMr Berlusconi's Forza Italia is a member, all the main politicalgroups in parliament have expressed concerns about the Italiangovernment, which includes the xenophobic Northern League andthe post-fascist National Alliance as junior partners.
"If Italy were a candidate country, it would not be acceptedinto the EU because we demand higher standards than these," saidMr Graham Watson, leader of the centre-right liberal group,singling out the immunity law and the anti-immigrant rhetoric ofpart of Mr Berlusconi's coalition.