Govt called 'Fascist' over Italicum confidence vote - update

(ANSA) - Rome, April 28 - Opposition parties called Premier Matteo Renzi's government Fascist on Tuesday after the executive decided to called a confidence vote in the Lower House over its Italicum electoral reform bill. MPs for the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) shouted "Fascists" after the announcement was made. Renato Brunetta, the House whip for Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party, expressed similar sentiments. "We will not allow Renzi Fascism," Brunetta said. "We'll do everything to stop it, both inside and outside this assembly". MPs for the small leftwing Left, Ecology and Freedom (SEL) party threw chrysanthemums, a flower associated with funerals in Italy, on the floor of the House.
    "This is the funeral of democracy," said SEL House whip Arturo Scotto. A group of rebel members of Renzi's own centre-left Democratic Party (PD) that is opposed to the election bill was also critical of the confidence vote. "It's a rupture that's impossible to understand," said PD rebel Barbara Pollastrini.
    "Right up to the last minute I'd been hoping for a different sort of confidence - confidence in the PD and in parliament".