The Senate resumed debate Friday
on the government's hotly contested Constitutional reform bill,
tackling the thorny issue of Article 2, which would would cut
the Upper House down by a third, from its current 315 members to
100.
On Thursday, Premier Matteo Renzi said that approval on
Article 1 and agreement on Article 2, comma 5 was a "brilliantly
achieved" victory that he considered the "hardest part" of the
overall bill's passage.
Nearly 40 votes are scheduled for Friday on Article 2, some
of which will be secret ballots.
On Friday morning, the Senate session was suspended in
order to evaluate reformulating proposed amendments to Article
2.
The suspension was most likely due to two amendments
submitted by the anti-immigrant, rightwing Northern League
party, for which secret ballots were previously permitted but
then requested to be reformulated to permit them to be voted on
separately.
Five secret votes were quashed, leaving just one of the
secret ballots announced two days ago. It is on an amendment
filed by Northern League Senator Roberto Calderoli, which
includes a change to the way future regional Senators are voted
in.
According to the amendment, this would be by universal
suffrage.
That amendment was rejected in a secret vote with 160
against, 116 in favor, and three abstaining.
Also on Friday, the Senate rejected an amendment that would
have scrapped Article 2 of the government's Constitutional
reform bill, on the election and composition of the future
regional Senate.
The amendment got 176 nays, 120 in favor and four
abstentions.
Speaker Pietro Grasso suspended the sitting for several
minutes after Lucio Barani, a Socialist who leads the so-called
Liberal-Popular and Autonomous Alliance (ALA) caucus, allegedly
made an obscene gesture - reportedly miming oral sex - directed
at anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) Senator Barbara
Lezzi.
This caused women Senators from various parties to attack
Barani, demanding he apologize.
The alleged culprit, however, insisted his gesture had been
"misunderstood".
"Since the escalation has reached the point where it
undermines civil coexistence, from now on there will be absolute
rigor," Grasso promised.
Barani later left the Senate, and issued an apologetic
statement.
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