Premier Matteo Renzi will have to
handle an internal revolt over his planned institutional reforms
from within his centre-left Democratic Party (PD) when he cames
back from a trade tour of Asia on Friday.
A group of 13 PD Senators suspended themselves from the
parliamentary party on Thursday after one of them, Corradino
Mineo, was taken off the Upper House's constitutional affairs
committee because he was not toeing the government's line.
The rebels says the decision to replace Mineo with the PD's
Senate whip Luigi Zanda on the commission is unconstitutional.
The government's plan to overhaul Italy's slow, costly
political apparatus includes a revamp of the Senate to turn it
into a leaner assembly of local-government representatives with
minimal law-making powers to save money and make passing
legislation easier.
Mineo, however, is part of a minority within the PD who
want the Senate to continue to be an elected assembly.
"We won't give up half a centimetre," Renzi, who got an
big endorsement for his institutional and economic reform plans
when the PD won over 40% of the vote in last month's European
elections, said during a meeting with Italian entrepreneurs in
Beijing Thursday.
"We are convinced we can change the country. You don't
announce reforms, you carry them out, and we aren't giving
anyone the right to veto.
"The votes of the Italian people count more than some
politicians' right to veto".
Renzi also has problems with ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi
over the reforms, after the head of the opposition centre-right
Forza Italia (FI) party said he is rethinking his initial
support for the institutional reforms.
The premier may soon meet again with Berlusconi, whose
initial support was sealed at an encounter in January, a month
before Renzi unseated his PD colleague Enrico Letta to become
Italy's youngest-ever premier at 39.
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