A controversial bill for a new
election law passed the third of three confidence votes it was
put to in the Lower House on Thursday.
Article 3 of the so-called Rosatellum 2.0 bill was approved
with 309 votes in favour, 87 against and six abstentions.
After passing the two other confidence tests on Wednesday,
the bill is expected to face a final test in the Lower House
with a secret vote later on Thursday, when it risks being
scuppered if lawmakers belonging to groups backing the bill do
not following the line of their parties.
The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) and several
left-wing groups are staunchly against the bill and say the use
of confidence votes to push it through parliament is an affront
to democracy.
There is also tension within the ruling Democratic Party (PD)
and former president Giorgio Napolitano criticised the
confidence move, lamenting the limitations it put on the
parliamentary debate and lawmakers' ability for shape the bill.
Ex-premier Massimo D'Alema, a member of PD splinter group
MDP, blasted the bill as "an unacceptable law, the (PD) leaders
are wearing out democracy".
Italy is set to have a general election early next year.
Those who attack the PD weaken the only "bulwark against
populism," PD leader Matteo Renzi said Wednesday, citing as
populists the M5S, former centre-right premier Silvio Berlusconi
and the anti-euro, anti-migrant Northern League (LN).
On the PD-led government's controversial use of confidence
votes to push through an election-law bill, ex-premier Renzi
recalled that postwar Christian Democrat statesman Alcide De
Gasperi used confidence votes for key policies.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
