M5S files bill halving lawmakers' pay

(ANSA) - Rome, October 24 - The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) on Monday presented a bill to cut lawmakers' salaries by half in the Lower House.
    M5S leader Beppe Grillo announced on his blog on Sunday that Monday would be a "historic' day because of the bill and called on activists to rally outside parliament on Tuesday to support the initiative.
    Comedian-turned-politician Grillo said halving MPs' salaries would do more to reduce the cost of Italy's political class than the government's controversial Constitutional reform to overhaul the country's institutions, which will be put to a referendum in December. "This law could be approved within days and it would make it possible to save up to 87 million euros a year," Grillo wrote.
    "That is well above the savings estimated in the reform, but without making the Constitution and the life of all Italian citizens worse". M5S parliamentarians pledge to take home less than half of their base gross salary of over 10,000 euros a month and give back the rest.
    Some 30 M5S MPs are scheduled to talk in favour of the bill.
    Premier Matteo Renzi's centre-left Democratic Party is set to demand that the bill return to the commission stage.
    Renzi on Sunday said MPs' pay should be linked to their attendance records, saying M5S bigwig and Lower House Deputy Speaker Luigi Di Maio had an attendance record of only 37%.
    Di Maio on Monday denied this, saying "the numbers give the lie" to what Renzi said.