(Italy) - The city council in Rome has blocked plans for a domestic partners register for same-sex and heterosexual couples. The Vatican had vehemently opposed the measure. Rightwing groups on the council rejected the modest proposal, whereby couples could have signed a register at the city clerk's office. They would then have been entitled to rights to visit their partner in hospital, family rates at city-run leisure centres and other benefits in the control of the council. Earlier this month Massimo D'Alema, a former Prime Minister who currently holds the highest post at the Italian Foreign office, said that he was against marriage between Gay people, because "only a marriage between a man and a woman represents the basis of the family according to the Italian Constitution, and is also a sacrament according to the Church." He added that Gay marriage would offend the religious feelings of 'many people'.
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