The Senate said Friday that
513,449 amendments were presented to the government's bill to
change the Constitution to overhaul the country's slow, costly
political machinery before the deadline for them to be filed
expired at 13:00 Friday.
The bill includes a controversial transformation of the
Senate into a leaner assembly of local-government
representatives with limited powers to save money and make
passing legislation easier.
Many lawmakers are opposed to this transformation,
including a sizable minority within Premier Matteo Renzi's
centre-left Democratic Party (PD)
The avalanche of amendments threatens to slow the bills
progress and is part of a bid to force the executive to give
concessions.
Rebel PD members filed 17 of the amendments, including one
calling for the Upper House to remain an assembly directly
elected by voters.
"The Senate of the Republic is elected by the citizens on
a regional basis, guaranteeing gender equality, at the same time
as the election of the regional assemblies," the amendment read.
Silvio Berlusconi's opposition centre-right Forza Italia
(FI), which this year withdrew its support for the reform that
was drafted in accordance with the Nazareno Pact that the
ex-premier struck with Renzi, presented more than 1,000
amendments to the bill.
The FI amendments include changes regarding the balance
between Lower House and Senate powers, and also demands to the
Senate to remain an directly elected assembly.
Vannino Chiti, one of the rebel PD Senators, said an
agreement was possible across party lines to keep an elected
Senate.
He said similar positions were held by 28 PD Senators and
12 from an autonomous grouping of ex-SEL, M5S, Forza Italia and
the Northern League.
PD Deputy Secretary Lorenzo Guerini said, however, that
while there should be dialogue about the government's
Constitutional reform bill, it was not possible to start over
the reform from scratch.
"We are always ready for talks to improve the bill, but we
say that changes are only possible that don't take the reform
path back to zero," Guerini said.
Renzi has said he is not worried about the amendments,
including those from rebels in his own party, exuding confidence
about he ability to carry the reform through even in the Senate,
where the government majority is slender.
On Friday he addressed an PD meeting on a completely
different issue, the troubles of Italy's less wealthy south.
Renzi said that in mid-September he will unveil "a real
master plan" for the South.
That will contain "a series of concrete proposals" and
should be ready by September 15 or 16, the premier said.
Renzi has been accused of not doing enough to help the
southern half of the country which consistently has lower rates
of economic growth and employment.
He told reporters that the main problems facing Southern
Italy at present "is not a lack of money, but a lack of policy".
And he added that past leaders in southern Italy
contributed to the current crisis there by relying on a
"rhetoric of abandonment" of the South by the rest of the
country.
He called that a form of "self-absolution" by leaders who
he said abandoned their responsibility.
Renzi added it was now "useless to attribute
responsibility to those who have left".
He also warned dissidents within his Democratic Party
against trying to make internal political use of discussions on
the master plan for the South.
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