Reform Minister Maria Elena
Boschi said Friday the ruling Democratic Party (PD) must team up
with other parties or its civil unions bill now before the
Senate won't get passed.
"Laws are made when the numbers are there," Boschi said.
"Right now the PD is not self-sufficient in the Senate, not
even if we add the Left Ecology and Freedom (SEL) votes. So we
must find a place of agreement among the available forces".
Debate on the bill has been adjourned to next Wednesday
after it ran aground earlier in the week.
"The fact that this issue is being faced in parliament for
the first time ever is not a defeat - I believe it is a
victory... (and) an act of courage on the part of this
parliament," Boschi added.
The bill would extend to committed gay couples some of the
same rights and protections currently enjoyed by heterosexual
married couples.
It seeks to fill a legislative vacuum, as Italy is the only
western European country not to have either legalised gay
marriage or recognised civil unions between same-sex couples.
"I hope the road ahead is short, because a lot of people
have been waiting too long and have a right to see their rights
recognized," she concluded.
The PD on Wednesday vowed to press head with an unchanged
version of its controversial civil-unions bill despite calls
from Catholics to scrap a provision for gay parents to adopt
their partners' biological children.
The bill was expected to be approved by the Senate this
week but ran aground Tuesday after the anti-establishment 5-Star
Movement pulled support from the PD's so-called 'kangaroo'
amendment which would have quashed hundreds of similar
amendments, most of them concerning the contested clause on
stepchild adoption.
Debate on the bill was therefore postponed until next
Wednesday, as Italy's LGBT community appealed to the M5S - many
of whose rank and file are said to be unhappy with the party
stance - to return to their former backing of the bill.
Despite the setback, the Senate PD caucus decided to fight
for the bill as it stands, without giving in to the opposition
demands that it scrap Article 5 granting partners in a civil
union the right to adopt each other's children.
The PD caucus is looking for strategies to bypass or
overcome opposition both outside and within the ruling PD,
sources said. Article 5 of the bill is opposed by Catholics
throughout the political spectrum, who say it would pave the way
to legalized surrogate motherhood.
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