Italy's Airline Plays a Role in National Elections

( 05 April 08 - RV) Italian Airline Alitalia will keep flying, though the future of the carrier is uncertain. Potential buyer Air France-KLM broke off talks with unions over demands that were believed to prevent the airline from making profit. Alitalia will tell the government by Tuesday whether it can survive. This comes just before the general elections which have a chaotic atmosphere and have been threatened to be postponed due to legal wrangling. James Newell is a Professor of politics at the University of Salford in Great Britain. He says that Alitalia has become one of the main issues in the upcoming national elections...