Italy's populist lawmakers take to streets as gov't wins confidence vote

Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-12 01:25:29|Editor: yan
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ROME, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- Lawmakers from Italy's populist, euroskeptic Five Star Movement mounted street protests in central Rome Wednesday as the government won the first of three confidence votes on its electoral bill.

The motion passed with 307 in favor, 90 against and 9 abstaining, even as the populist lawmakers shouted on the streets outside that "the people must take to the streets to defend democracy," as seen live on TV.

The bill submitted by the ruling center-left Democratic Party would see one third of lawmakers elected on a first-past-the-post basis and two thirds via proportional representation, with a 3 percent minimum threshold for parties to be able to seat candidates in parliament.

The bill is backed by the center-right Forza Italia party led by media mogul and ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, the rightwing anti-immigrant Northern League, and the small centrist Popular Alternative party.

This means the government has the numbers, at least on paper, to get the bill approved.

The populist Five Star Movement, which has been polling neck and neck with the Democratic Party for months, strongly rejects the proposal, claiming it is designed to harm their chances in the next general election, likely to be held in spring 2018.

Its lawmakers have deserted the Lower House to join demonstrators on the streets. The bill is also opposed by several small left wing parties that splintered from the Democratic Party, and by the small rightwing Brothers of Italy party.

The government has called two confidence votes to be held Wednesday on two of the bill's five articles, with another confidence vote to be held Thursday, followed by a secret final vote.

Right now, Italy has two different voting systems for each of the houses of parliament -- a first-past-the-post system for the 630-seat Chamber of Deputies, and proportional representation for the 315-member Senate.

Elections held under the current system can lead to political gridlock by resulting in different outcomes in the two chambers, which have equal powers.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who has the power to dissolve parliament, has said no vote will be held until voting procedures for both houses are made homogeneous.

Last summer the Democratic Party, the Five Star Movement and Forza Italia agreed on a German-style electoral scheme mixing the proportional and majority systems. However, the motion was defeated in a secret parliamentary vote in June.

The government of Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni has decided to put the bill to confidence votes to avoid the possibility of it being shot down by allies during the secret final vote, as happened last summer.

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