Premier Matteo Renzi has denied
speculation he sealed a secret deal with Silvio Berlusconi to
win the Forza Italia leader's support for his reforms to Italy's
political machinery and a new election law.
Renzi, the leader of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD),
denied reports that three-time premier Berlusconi had requested
a special measure that would enable him to stand in elections
again after becoming ineligible following a definitive tax-fraud
conviction last year.
"The time of laws tailor-made for the benefit of a specific
person is over," Renzi said in an interview published by
Rome-based daily La Repubblica on Monday.
"Do you really think I'd sign something with Berlusconi and
hide it in a drawer? This is the result of a culture of
suspicion, nurtured by a part of the left".
Renzi and Berlusconi are set to meet sometime this week to
discuss electoral law reform, with the date and time to be
confirmed, PD officials said.
Meanwhile, voting on Renzi's Constitutional reform bill
resumed Monday after Senators late last week approved its first
two articles which, with a total of 4,500 amendments between
them, were the most hotly contested by opponents.
Of the two articles approved last week, the first stripped
the Senate of most of its lawmaking powers and concentrated them
in the Lower House, while the second cut the number of Senators
from 315 to 100, of whom 95 are to be chosen by regional
councils and five to be nominated by the Italian president. It
passed with 194 votes in favor, 26 nays, and eight abstentions.
On Monday, the Upper House approved article three of
Renzi's bill, eliminating life Senators - appointed by the
president of the Republic in recognition of social, scientific,
or artistic merit - and replacing them with Senators appointed
to a non-renewable period of seven years. Opponents had filed 90
amendments to this article.
With 193 in favor, 9 against and eight abstaining, it also
approved the ninth reform article, denying parliamentary
immunity to members of what will be the new, slimmed-down Senate
with reduced lawmaking powers.
The voting continued amid yet another walk-out by the
anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), which staged a similar
protest last Friday along with MPs from the left-wing SEL party
and the anti-immigrant, separatist Northern League.
"This trashy piece of reform doesn't deserve our
participation," said M5S Senate whip Vito Petrocelli.
While the M5S continued to bluster and pout, Italy's
premier pronounced himself satisfied with the pace of reform
after overcoming what appeared only last week to be an
unbreakable standoff with opponents of his bill.
"Things really are changing," Renzi tweeted.
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