'I share students' protest' says Italian bishops' deputy

(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 11 - Vice President of the Italian Bishops' Conference and bishop of Cassano, Monsignor Francesco Savino said Thursday that he shared the student protest underway in many cities over high rents in Italy.
    "I share this gentle, civil protest that says to adults, and especially to those who have political responsibilities: Do you realize that we can't manage?" said Savino on the sidelines of a press conference at the Vatican.
    Having to pay 800-900 euros for a room risks creating the conditions for a social revolt, added the prelate.
    "It's a real, authentic protest, responding to an objective need. Let's try to listen to them," said the bishop, adding that the issue will be the focus of the Bishops' Conference assembly at the end of May.
    "We cannot ignore the questions being posed, we want to listen to needs, starting especially with young people," he concluded.
    Earlier on Thursday the President of the Culture and University Committee Federico Mollicone of Premier Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy (FdI) said the party would present a resolution and convene student associations and the relevant ministers, as well as representatives of local and regional authorities.
    "We must solve this problem that afflicts so many Italian students throughout the nation, to ensure the complete fulfilment of the right to study, an issue that has been neglected until now," said Mollicone.
    "In Milan a single room costs on average 628 euros per month, in Bologna 467 a month and in Rome 452 a month," he added.
    University rectors have called on the government to make existing state property available to students and on Thursday University Minister Anna Maria Bernini said a census of vacant properties would be carried out.
    The issue of high rents came to the fore last week when a student set up camp outside her Milan university to protest at the cost of accommodation in Italy's economic capital.
    The protest has since spread to several major cities in Italy, including Rome, Bologna and Florence. (ANSA).