(Repeats Tuesday item)
* Cheap illegal housing is chronic Italian problem
* Politicians fear backlash if they demolish illegal houses
* Geologists say Ischia quake shouldn't have caused damage
By Gavin Jones
ROME, Aug 22 (Reuters) - A small but deadly earthquake on the Italian holiday island of Ischia exposed a deep political fault line on Tuesday over the country's proliferation of unsafe, illegal housing.
The tremor, officially recorded in Italy at a modest strength of 4.0, toppled buildings, killed two people and injured dozens in a district where seven years ago residents rioted to prevent bulldozers from razing illegally built homes.
"It's ridiculous that people should die in an earthquake of this strength," said Francesco Peduto, president of Italy's national association of geologists. "In other advanced countries a quake like this would do no damage at all."
A fifth of new Italian houses were built illegally in 2015, according to the statistics bureau ISTAT, up from 9 percent in 2008. In four southern regions - including Sicily and Campania, where Ischia lies - the proportion stood at well over a third two years ago.
The legal status of the buildings that came down on Monday night was unclear. But the deaths reopened a debate over the problem of builders sidestepping regulations, including those designed to ensure homes can resist earthquakes.
"Ischia has always been a symbol of illegal building, random cementification and impunity," Italy's environmentalist lobby Legambiente said in a statement after the earthquake.
It struck three days before the first anniversary of a much bigger, 6.2 magnitude quake that killed nearly 300 people in central Italy, most of them in the town of Amatrice.
The government and political parties say they want to tackle the problem, but they have been reluctant to match words with deeds, especially in the run-up to local elections in Sicily in November and a national vote early next year.
Many houses, especially in the poor south, have been built illegally to save money and time by avoiding taxes and red tape, and their owners resist attempts to enforce the law.
Angelo Cambiano, former mayor of the small Sicilian town of Licata, paid a high price for tackling the problem. He first received anonymous threats and was finally forced from office by his own councillors this month after demolishing 67 illegal dwellings, mostly holiday homes on the coast, since he took office in 2015.
Cambiano's approach was unusual. Governments of all political stripes have preferred to serve up regular amnesties for illegal construction work, allowing culprits to regularise their position with the payment of a modest fine while allowing the structures to stand.