Ex-Democratic Party (PD) chief Pierluigi Bersani won't attend a meeting of the party's executive later in the day because of a prior engagement, sources said Monday. The meeting is being held to thrash out a deal between government and a rebel leftwing minority within the centre-left party led by Premier Matteo Renzi over its flagship Constitutional reform bill.
The PD rebels led by Bersani are opposed to Article 2 of the bill that would revamp Italy's political machinery, turning the Senate into a leaner assembly of local-government representatives with limited lawmaking powers. Article 2 currently stops the revamped upper house being directly elected, and had been at the centre of negotiations between the government and PD rebels in recent weeks.
The dissenters want Senators to be elected by the Italian people, arguing the bill is undemocratic as it stands.
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