Regional autonomy bill moves from Senate to House (5)

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 23 - A controversial regional autonomy bill devolving more powers from the national government to Italy's 20 regions moved from the Senate to the House Tuesday.
    The bill is a pet policy move of the rightwing League party, whose Upper House Whip Massimiliano Romeo hailed the success of a majority pact with Premier Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy (FdI) party trading off the so-called differentiated autonomy move with Meloni's flagship policy of introducing the direct election of the Italian premier by the Italian people, another controversial move that would allegedly strip Italian presidents of some of their powers and move towards more authoritarian government.
    Opposition centre-left Democratic Party (PD) leader Elly Schlein condemned the trade-off, saying that the autonomy measure would make citizens already penalised by the north-south gap even worse off in terms of public services.
    She accused Meloni of trying to resurrect the League's one-time "secession design".
    In its early days in the late 80s and early 90s the then Northern League campaigned to break the affluent north away from the poorer south and an allegedly parasitic central government.
    League leader, Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini called the Senate vote "a great result" while protesting PD Senators waved Italian flags and sang the national anthem.
    (ANSA).