Tension rose to new heights on
Wednesday between right-wing junior ruling coalition
member in Parliament, the New Center Right (NCD) party, and
Italian Premier Matteo Renzi's ruling Democratic Party (PD), as
the government's civil unions bill, which NCD opposes, went to
the Senate floor.
In a joint statement issued Wednesday, NCD MPs Eugenia
Roccella and Carlo Giovanardi said they felt "free to vote no in
a confidence vote, if it comes to that".
"If PD decides to ignore its own allies, it has to be ready
to accept the consequences," the statement said.
The bill would give same-sex couples many of the same
rights and responsibilities as straight married couples,
including the right for one spouse in a civil union to adopt the
other spouse's children.
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, who leads the NCD, has
said he would wage a "loyal" battle against aspects of Renzi's
bill.
"Yes to the recognition of individual property and
inheritance rights, no to adoptions," he said.
Roccella and Giovanardi said, "With obstinance and
arrogance PD decided today to hinge the civil unions bill on the
Senate floor, eliminating the debate in committee and forcing
procedure, despite our availability to find an agreement on
timing, and the withdrawal of 80% of the amendments by NCD to
avoid manipulative accusations of obstructionism. PD instead
preferred to vote the calendar with 5 Star Movement (M5S) and
Left Ecology Freedom (SEL) rather than seek mediation".
They said the new text of the bill "introduces a
marriage-like form between people of the same sex, and that with
stepchild adoption opens the doors to uterus rental".
NCD, part of the traditionally Catholic center right, sees
the bill as a vehicle that would usher in the legalization
of surrogate motherhood in Italy, which it opposes and which the
Catholic Church condemns as a sin.
Giovanardi and Roccella also said Parliament isn't
autonomous from the government in this issue.
"We even witnessed a hunger strike, essentially undertaken
against the government's ally, by an undersecretary," the
statement said, referring to openly gay junior minister Ivan
Scalfarotto who staged a hunger strike in July in support of the
civil unions bill.
On Wednesday, the online version of "L'Occidentale", which
is aligned with NCD, declared on its front page that Renzi "is
breaking away from NCD".
"The time has come to go back to a dialectic on values, one
of the few things that in a post-ideological age like today's
remain to define boundaries, identity and belonging," said
L'Occidentale.
"On the one side there are those who believe that a gay
couple should be able to get married and have a baby, paying a
woman to carry it in her womb and then giving it up, on the
other side those who defend the natural family".
"By tearing away on civil unions (a tear that PD made with
that extra useless arrogance that weighs down relations),
choosing another majority, Renzi's Democratic Party shows that
it's a classic American-style 'catch-all party', that seeks
votes in the centre when it goes to the polls but can't aspire
to represent the values of moderates, liberals, and
conservatives," the article said.
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