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.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
