Parliament has been
"humiliated" by Premier Matteo Renzi's ramming through key
legislation such as the scrapping of the Senate in its present
form via emergency decrees and confidence votes, the leader of
the Left, Ecology and Freedom (SEL) party, Nichi Vendola, said
after meeting President Sergio Mattarella Tuesday.
Vendola, among opposition leaders who asked to meet
Mattarella last week after the government used non-stop 'river'
debates to push its constitutional reform ahead, said Renzi
could not "govern by 'coups de main' and accelerations that gag
parliament, reducing it to a vote factory".
He said SEL expected more "seriousness and respect" from
the premier and leader of the ruling Democratic Party.
Renzi had been relying on a deal with ex-premier Silvio
Berlusconi for broad support for constitutional reforms.
That deal collapsed, and Berlusconi's Forza Italia (FI)
joined opposition parties in boycotting votes, after Renzi had
Mattarella elected without FI's agreement.
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