Premier Matteo Renzi said
Friday that it was not up to the Italian Church to decide
whether a parliamentary vote on a bill regulating civil unions,
including same-sex ones, should be a secret ballot.
On Thursday Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, the head of Italian
bishops conference CEI, called for a secret vote on the bill,
which many Catholics and conservatives oppose.
The appeal led to several lawmakers from Renzi's
centre-left Democratic Party (PD) to accuse the Church of
meddling in Italian politics.
"It is up to parliament and I say that with respect for
Cardinal Bagnasco," Renzi told Radio Anch'io when asked about
the CEI's call for a secret vote.
"I like the idea that parliamentarians answer to the vote
they make and explains it. Then there is the parliamentary
regulation, which envisages secret votes, and (Senate Speaker
Pietro) Grasso will decide if the necessary conditions exist,
not the CEI".
The bill now before the Senate would extend to committed
gay couples some of the same rights and protections currently
enjoyed by heterosexual married couples.
Renzi was echoed by the two parliamentary speakers, Pietro
Grasso and Laura Boldrini, who reiterated that it was their
prerogative to decide which measures should go to an open or
secret ballot.
Bagnasco's No.2 at the CEI, Secretary-General Nunzio
Galantino, would only say: "I'll say what I said the other day
and that is I can't say anything out of respect for the
institutions and parliament".
In other remarks Friday, the premier acknowledged that he
had often been critical of the European union recently,
especially over its perceived insistence on the mathematical
minutiae of budget parameters rather than on stoking growth and
creating jobs - as well as an alleged reluctance to share the
burden of the migrant emergency more widely.
But he stressed that Rome was only trying to make
proposals, rather than making waves.
Renzi insisted his frequent criticism of the European Union
was constructive and not merely aimed at creating controversy.
"Our voice in Europe is not that of someone trying to be an
annoyance, but of someone who brings proposals," Renzi told a
press conference after meeting European Parliament President
Martin Schulz.
Renzi returned to the attack on migrants Friday saying that
the European Union must be consistent in supporting the States
bearing the brunt of the refugee-migrant crisis.
"It has been some time that we have considered the
immigration problem to be a European one and that no country can
be left along to manage this serious situation," Renzi said
after meeting Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann at his office
in Rome.
"It is not possible to show solidarity every other day".
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