100 Senators walk out over 'bear trap'

(ANSA) - Rome, July 24 - The government on Thursday opted to use parliament's controversial debate-cutting 'bear trap' to combat the obstructionism that is making the progress of the government's Senate reform bill painfully slow, sparking the mass walk-out of opposition MPs.
    Some 100 Senators from the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, the Left Ecology Freedom (SEL) party, and the anti-immigrant, separatist Northern League stormed out of parliament in protest against the 'bear trap', marching a few blocks to reach the Quirinale presidential palace, where President Giorgio Napolitano agreed to meet with their leaders. Opponents to the plan to turn the Senate into a leaner assembly of local-government representatives have tabled around 7,800 amendments to the bill in a time-wasting tactic that meant that only a handful have been voted on since the package reached the floor of the Upper House this week.
    The government wants to see the bill, which aims to make passing legislation easier while saving public money, complete its first reading in the Senate before parliament's summer recess next month.
    "For the fifth time, the PD has appealed to all the parties for a very significant reduction in the number of amendments," said PD Senate whip Luigi Zanda after work on the bill was suspended for an urgent meeting of whips Thursday.
    After the whips' meeting, Deputy Senate Speaker Maurizio Gasparri, who is from Silvio Berlusconi's opposition center-right Forza Italia (FI) party, said that voting on the government's Constitutional reform bill will be done by August 8, when parliament's summer recess begins.
    Reform Minister Maria Elena Boschi, meanwhile, said that the government was willing to negotiate certain aspects of the bill in exchange for big cuts in the number of amendments.
    "The government is willing to examine some issues, but it won't give in to the blackmail of 7,800 amendments," she said.
    "If there is a substantial cut, we are willing (to talk)".
    Boschi added that bill can be amended but must not be "turned on its head". "The government is always willing to improve the text," she said.
    The bill has the backing of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, the leader of the opposition centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party, but is encountering staunch resistance from M5S, SEL, the Northern League, and from within the FI and the ruling Democratic Party of Premier Matteo Renzi.
    Later in the day, as opponents of the reform ramped up their efforts to derail the measures, Boschi said on Twitter post that the final word will come from the voters "in a citizens referendum anyway".