Govt defeated on terror bill amendment

(ANSA) - Rome, June 23 - The government lost to the opposition Thursday in a Senate vote on an amendment to its anti-terror bill in what some say could be the first sign of cracks in Premier Matteo Renzi's unusual left-right governing coalition.
    Today's vote comes in the aftermath of a resounding defeat for Renzi's center-left Democratic Party (PD) in local elections across Italy, in which the PD lost key cities including the capital to the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S).
    The amendment presented by two Senators from Silvio Berlusconi's center-right opposition Forza Italia (FI) party would increase the penalty for terrorist acts to 15 years and up if they involve the use of nuclear devices, while the majority version of the bill called for prison sentences of 6-12 years.
    The motion passed with 102 in favor, 92 against and four abstaining.
    Just 80 of 113 PD Senators were present during the vote, but the more significant signal came from the PD's junior ally - the small splinter New Center Right (NCD) party. Of its 31-member caucus, 15 were absent and nine voted with the opposition. Also voting against the government was the ALA group of former Berlusconi aide Denis Verdini, whose centre-right caucus provided the swing vote that got Renzi's landmark civil unions law approved last month. All this spells trouble for Renzi's coalition, and the premier needs to change his tune, leftwing dissenters within the PD said.
    "We have often voted for things we found unconvincing, for example the indiscriminate abolition of the housing tax, including for billionaires," said MP Roberto Speranza, leader of a dissenting PD minority. "We demand a profound change and we say enough is enough...we are no longer available to support measures that worsen the social divide, because in this way we will only hand the country over to the right and to the M5S".
    Dissenters called for changes to the premier's Italicum electoral law and for Renzi to generally readjust his attitude ahead a meeting of the party executive, which was brought forward to Friday from next week in the aftermath of the city elections debacle.