Renzi puts Italicum to confidence test

(ANSA) - Rome, April 28 - Premier Matteo Renzi on Tuesday dared parliament to send him packing after Reform Minister Maria Elena Boschi called a confidence vote on the government's hotly contested 'Italicum' electoral reform bill, sparking protests from the Lower House floor. "After years of delays we take responsibility in parliament and before the country, without fear," the premier tweeted. "The House has the right to send me packing if it wants: that's what a confidence vote is for," Renzi tweeted. "As long as I am here, I will try to change Italy". Meanwhile, MPs from the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) shouted "Fascists" after the announcement was made and Renato Brunetta, the House whip for Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party, expressed similar sentiments. "We will not allow Renzi Fascism," said Brunetta, whose party initially supported the Italicum - which was the fruit of an agreement between Renzi and Berlusconi - but pulled its backing after the premier overrode Berlusconi's wishes and nominated Sergio Mattarella for president of the Republic. MPs for the small leftwing Left, Ecology and Freedom (SEL) party threw chrysanthemums, a flower associated with funerals in Italy. "This is the funeral of democracy," said SEL House whip Arturo Scotto. Dissident members of Renzi's own centre-left Democratic Party (PD) were also critical, with former party chief Pier Luigi Bersani and ex-premier Enrico Letta saying they will not participate.
    "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". The premier has warned that his coalition's executive will collapse if the bill fails to ultimately win approval in what Renzi hopes will be its final reading in parliament. His government is facing stiff opposition to its bill for a new election system, which would award bonus seats to the party winning 40% of the vote - or a run-off vote in case no one party reaches that threshold - to ensure it has a working majority in parliament. The dissenting PD minority argues the Italicum as it stands will tip the balance of power away from parliament and in favor of the executive. At the same time, the opposition - i.e. FI, M5S, SEL, and the rightwing, anti-immigrant Northern League - is trying to delay the bill's ratification or amend it drastically because, unlike Renzi's PD, no other party is likely to win 40% of the vote on its own. Some 100 opposition amendments have been filed to the bill.
    The first of three confidence votes in the Lower House is scheduled for Wednesday with the other two to be held on Thursday, sources told ANSA.