House approves Italicum

(ANSA) - Rome, May 4 - The Lower House in a secret vote Monday approved the government's Italicum electoral reform with 334 votes in favor, 61 against and four abstaining.
    "Mission accomplished. The government has maintained its commitment. We promised and we delivered," Italian Reform Minister Maria Elena Boschi told journalists. Premier Matteo Renzi, who is also head of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), has said that the government's hotly contested new election system will bring political stability and make it clear who is governing for five years. The bill won final approval in the Lower House late Monday after passing three confidence votes last week. Monday's vote was greeted with a few seconds of applause from the ranks of the PD. As deputies flowed out of the chamber after the vote, many from the ruling left-right majority coalition kissed Boschi, including Interior Minister Angelino Alfano - leader of the New Centre-Right (NCD) party - and Defense Minister Roberta Pinotti from the PD.
    "We have approved a good law that gives stability, representation and also preferences," Alfano said. "Dissent was quite broad," said Pier Luigi Bersani, Renzi's predecessor as PD chief and a staunch opponent of some aspects of the Italicum. "What's done is done, but the political fact both on the approval of the law and the size of the dissent is not insignificant".