While Monday marked the start of
an important week for reforms going through parliament, Premier
and Democratic Party (PD) leader Matteo Renzi appeared unfazed
by ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's threat to pull the plug on a
deal forged a year ago to push through Parliament key
legislation.
Draft reforms to be debated this week will include
anti-corruption legislation in the Senate.
Ex-premier Berlusconi vowed over the weekend he would lead
a "360-degree opposition" after the reported split last week
between his center-right Forza Italia party and the PD over an
agreement - the so-called Nazareno pact- that included changing
Italy's electoral law to make governments more stable.
Renzi remained silent with sources in his party hinting
Berlusconi might return to the negotiating table, at least on
the electoral reform, after the turmoil over Renzi's
take-it-or-leave-it candidature of Constitutional Court judge
Sergio Mattarella as Italian president has died down.
Indeed leading members of the PD suggested Renzi could
reconsider key parts of the electoral reform if Forza Italia
pulls the plug on the deal, including a controversial measure
sponsored by Forza Italia giving parties the power to say who
will be the first person voted into parliament in 100
constituencies for the Lower House.
The measure has been strongly opposed by a minority within
Renzi's own PD over the fact that the so-called blocked lists of
candidates appointed by parties give no room for voter
preferences, distancing the public from the political class.
The president of the Lower House's labor committee Cesare
Damiano, a member of the PD, on Sunday suggested the number of
lawmakers directly chosen by voters could be increased compared
to the number of those appointed by parties.
Parliament will also have to debate, among other things, a
controversial institutional reform to transform the Senate into
a leaner assembly of local-government representatives with few
lawmaking powers in order to make approval of legislation easier
and faster.
Since spokesmen from FI and the PD announced last week that
the Nazareno pact was dead, Renzi has said he believes he has
enough support to pass his reforms to Italy's election law as
well as institutional reforms - which require a two-thirds
majority if they are to avoid going to a referendum - with or
without Berlusconi's party.
Meanwhile the premier, faced with the first weak signs of
economic recovery, is eyeing key measures to unblock investments
and boost growth in the immediate future.
Among measures on the government's agenda in the coming
weeks - with the next council of ministers scheduled on February
20 - is the so-called "investment compact" to attract foreign
investors and a controversial tax-fraud decree which has drawn
suspicions of a back-room deal between Renzi and Berlusconi as
part of their now-defunct Nazareno agreement.
The tax-fraud decree approved by the cabinet last December
24 was suspended by Renzi last month after it sparked a public
outcry because it could in theory be used to annul the August
2013 tax-fraud conviction and consequent ban from public office
of media mogul and former premier, Silvio Berlusconi.
The decree decriminalized tax fraud "when the sum of evaded
taxes does not exceed 3% of declared taxable income".
The premier is also scheduled to begin a cross-country tour
next Saturday in Melfi, Sicily, to get back in the public eye
after the lengthy consultations that led to Mattarella's
presidential election on January 31.
And starting the tour from Melfi could be far from a
coincidence as the premier is reportedly considering to turn the
ministry for regional affairs into a ministry for Italy's South,
managing EU funding.
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