The Senate caucus of the ruling
centre-left Democratic Party (PD) on Tuesday agreed to drop a
so-called stepchild adoption provision in its civil unions bill.
It also agreed to the government filing a so-called
maxi-amendment the bill, and putting this to a confidence vote.
That vote will likely be held Thursday.
The provision on adopting the biological children of
partners, including same-sex ones, was removed after the
anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) pulled its support for
the bill last week.
Without M5S backing, PD Premier Matteo Renzi opted to turn
to his junior ruling coalition partner for support. But the
small New Center Right (NCD) party led by Interior Minister
Angelino Alfano said this was conditional on the PD dropping the
stepchild adoptions clause.
Renzi told his PD Tuesday that the M5S "can't make fools of
the PD" by "playing games" over the bill, now in its first
Senate reading.
He said he "defended" a bid to get the M5S on board but
noted that "there was an unexpected about-face - they tricked
us".
He said "now we can't risk sinking a law that is crucial to
millions of Italians... the M5S are playing at the expense of
rights with a cavalier position."
The bill is set to go forward without the stepchild
adoption measure as demanded by the NCD.
PD Senator Monica Cirinnà, the bill's rapporteur, said
Tuesday that she backed Renzi's proposal to file a big amendment
to the package and put it to a confidence vote.
"It's a vote of confidence in the country, not in the
government," Cirinnà told a meeting of PD Senators.
The M5S on Tuesday said it was ready to vote for the bill
and accused the PD of being "scared of parliament", arguing
Renzi would rather maim the bill and be sure it will pass rather
than risk submitting it to proper debate.
The M5S has been blamed for the dropping of the stepchild
adoption provision because of its last-minute refusal to back a
'kangaroo amendment' that would have knocked down hundreds of
other amendments presented by opponents to the bill, which
otherwise would have had to be debated one by one.
The Renzi government has in the past used the so-called
kangaroo to bypass opposition obstructionism in order to push
other reforms through.
A leftist minority member of the PD appeared to agree with
the M5S on this, saying the government was wrong to compromise
with its center-right coalition partner.
"Renzi chose to deliver himself to the NCD," said PD
Senator Miguel Gotor. The bill might have passed as it stands
after debate had the government not been in such a rush to push
it through, Gotor argued.
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