Roberto Calderoli, a senior
Senator with the Northern League party, has proposed retaining
the Senate as an elected assembly - in contrast with changes
envisioned in a government bill to turn the Upper House into a
leaner body of local-government representatives with minimal
lawmaking powers.
The changes to the Senate are part of institutional reforms
aimed at making Italy easier and cheaper to government that
Premier Matteo Renzi has a deal on with Silvio Berlusconi, the
leader of the opposition centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party.
But members of FI on Wednesday called for that pact to be
renegotiated to make it possible for the Upper House to continue
being an elected body.
Furthermore, there is a minority within Renzi's centre-left
Democratic Party (PD) that is also against having an Upper House
made up of representatives nominated by the country's regions.
So Calderoli's announcement that he too is proposing
keeping an elected Senate at the fringes of a meeting of its
Constitutional affairs committee suggests resistance is growing
to the reform Renzi is trying to push through.
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