The rightwing League party on Tuesday
tabled 700 amendments to a homophobia bill now in the Senate,
which has been approved by the House but which does not appear
to have a majority in the upper chamber.
Matteo Salvini's nationalist party, which says the bill curbs
freedom of expression, said it would withdraw the amendments if
the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), whose member and gay
activist Alessandro Zan filed the bill, says it is willing to
negotiate about their objections.
PD leader Enrico Letta on Monday ruled out negotiating with
Salvini saying he was homophobic as shown by his support for
Hungary's anti-LGBTQI+ laws.
Amid the impasse, it is feared that the bill may be put off
until after the summer recess.
The battle over the long-awaited draft legislation designed to
combat homophobia resumed a week ago, when the Zan bill reached
the floor of the Senate on Tuesday, eight months after it was
approved by the Lower House.
The bill risks being sent back to the Upper House's justice
committee and, therefore, facing a fresh delay if an agreement
is not reached among the parties supporting Premier Mario
Draghi's government.
The bill has been at the centre of tension for weeks, with the
Vatican recently getting involved, expressing concerns that it
could breach the Lateran Treaty that regulates relations between
the Italian State and the Holy See/Catholic Church.
The Vatican and conservative Italian political parties are
worried that the bill could curb freedom of expression, in part
because it allegedly leaves areas open to interpretation by
courts because it is too vague.
Zan and the rest of the PD argue that the bill would not crimp
freedom of expression, and Catholic conservatives would still be
able to state that they find homosexuality sinful.
The bill would make homophobia an aggravating factor in acts of
violence or discrimination like racism already is.
The bill would also set up an anti-discrimination day that
private Catholic schools would be expected to take part in.
The parties opposed to the bill in its current form, led by
Salvini's League and Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia
(FI), are seeking a delay to have more time to reach an
agreement on a package that can have wider support.
The PD, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) and the
left-wing LeU group are against further delay, saying the law is
already long overdue.
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