Senate approves article two govt bill

(ANSA) - Rome, August 1 - The Senate on Friday approved the second article of the government's hotly contested Constitutional reform bill, which aims to turn the Senate into a leaner assembly of local-government representatives with minimal lawmaking powers.
    The second article cuts the number of Senators from 315 to 100, of whom 95 to be chosen by regional councils and five to be nominated by the president of the Republic.
    It passed with 194 votes in favor, 26 nays, and eight abstentions.
    Yesterday, the Senate approved the first article of the bill, stripping the Senate of most of its lawmaking powers and concentrating them in the Lower House. The bill is staunchly opposed by the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), the leftwing SEL party, and the anti-immigrant, separatist Northern League, with its progress on the floor of the Senate stymied by filibustering and the presentation of 7,800 amendments: 6,000 of them from SEL and 4,500 of them heaped on the first two articles of the bill.