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.
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