Premier Matteo Renzi saluted the
opponents to his government's ambitious programme after one of
its flagship reforms, an overhaul of Italy's civil service, won
final approval in the Senate on Tuesday.
The bill passed with 145 yeas to 97 nays and no
abstentions, although the opposition indirectly contributed to
the victory.
If opponents had snubbed the vote, rather than voting
against, quorum would not have been reached, annulling the
outcome.
Nevertheless, Renzi was jubilant at the approval of an
important piece of his programme.
"Another piece: civil-service reform approved," Renzi said
on his Twitter account.
"A hug to my ill-wisher friends".
Renzi calls ill-wishers (or owls - 'gufi) those who want
his government and its reformist agenda to fail, allegedly
including some members of his own centre-left Democratic Party
(PD).
The government has passed, among others, controversial
reforms of the labour market and the schools sector as well as
introducing a new election system.
It is also pushing through a bill to overhaul Italy's
slow, costly political machinery, including the transformation
of the Senate into a leaner assembly of local-government
representatives with limited powers.
The civil service law makes it possible for civil managers
to lose their jobs if they perform badly and introduces a
merit-based system for senior bureaucrats.
It also seeks to encourage greater use of the Internet so
the public can obtain more public services online and introduces
a single emergency service number, 112, replacing the separate
ones that currently exist for the police, paramedics and the
fire brigade.
The reform reorganises the nation's police forces too and
abolishes one, the forest guards, who will be incorporated into
one of the others.
Another measure brings in an Italian freedom of
information act, giving the public the right to access public
sector documents and data.
The measures must still be signed by the head of state and
published in the official gazette before becoming law.
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