The Senate resumed voting Tuesday
on a slew of 7,800 amendments after a meeting of party whips
failed to produce an agreement that would break an ongoing
deadlock between opponents and supporters of Premier Matteo
Renzi's hotly contested Constitutional reform bill.
"Attempts at mediation failed," Senate Speaker Pietro
Grasso said. "I did everything possible in favor of any solution
at all. I regretfully concede that we must resume voting".
The Senate proceeded to reject one of the 6,000 amendments
filed by the opposition Left Ecology Freedom (SEL) party.
Opponents of the bill have filed a barrage of some 7,800
amendments to the bill that would revamp the Senate, essentially
stalling it since it hit the Senate floor last week.
Grasso had suspended voting after dissidents within the
premier's Democratic Party (PD) came up with an offer of
mediation to break the deadlock, but opponents and proponents of
the bill fell out over those suggestions as well.
PD Senator Vannino Chiti, a critic of Renzi's reforms,
suggested postponing a final vote until the first week of
September, if opponents agree to withdraw some of their
amendments so they can be voted on before August recess begins.
Renzi had wanted the first reading of the bill to be
completed before the summer break.
The center-right Forza Italia (FI) party of ex premier
Silvio Berlusconi and the splinter New Center Right (NCD) party,
both of which support Renzi's bill, seconded Chiti's motion.
SEL said it is open to negotiation but not as long as the
electoral reform pact between Renzi and Berlusconi still stands.
The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement declared its 200
amendments were there to stay, and the anti-immigrant,
separatist Northern League also declined to consider Chiti's
proposal.
"The conditions for mediation are not there," PD Senate
whip Luigi Zanda concluded.
"Those who filed 6,000 amendments said they won't reduce
them. So let the work continue following the government's
timetable".
Senators as of this week have been ordered to work
9am-midnight, seven days a week and with strict speaking time
limits, in order to complete a first reading of the reform bill
before parliament's summer recess next month.
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