With 136 votes against, 124 in favor and 4 abstentions, the Senate Chamber rejected the preliminary rulings of constitutionality, advanced by Lega and Fratelli d’Italia on the Zan Bill. Having communicated the outcome of the vote, President Casellati closed the session. The examination of the Zan Bill will resume tomorrow morning at 9.30 with the votes on the suspensive issues presented by Forza Italia and FdI.
The bill between the Aula and the group leader
“I suspend the classroom and immediately summon the group leader.” Thus the president of the Senate, Elisabetta Casellati at the end of a first round of speeches by the senators on the Zan Bill. The suspension served to rsseren the spirits, given the heated climate that in the House saw the forces of the center-right oppose, which ask to look for a hypothesis of agreement for the modifications to the Zan and Pd-Leu and M5S text which ask to proceed with the Original bill.
So much so as to make her intervene in the midst of the brawl for the convocation of the group leaders with a peremptory: “I will take the final decision” he said while some parliamentarians raise their tone of voice on the merits of the convocation of the group leader: “We have already won the Europeans – adds Casellati – I don’t want a stadium atmosphere ». The eventual decision of a postponement as requested during the meeting of the Senate Justice Committee convened on the Zan Bill, by Lega and Fratelli d’Italia, in fact, did not belong to the commission but to the group leaders. Who got together right away.
The session in the Chamber began with the intervention of the President of the Justice Commission, the Northern League Andrea Ostellari, who declared at the end of the committee meeting: «It seems to me that in the last few hours a different picture has emerged from the compactness on the other side as well. I think it’s time to check that availability. The availabilities are there, they must be sought and put together, so let’s join those who want to change a text and make it shared as much as possible. We drive away those who disagree ». Who then declared “With the stop we will reach an agreement in 15 days”. Even if the risk is to get to the vote in September.
Upon returning to the classroom after the group leader, Matteo Renzi announced that Italia Vova would vote against the preliminary question and proposes to “make a political pact so that in the House, should the Zan Bill be amended by the Senate, it can be presented within two weeks. Mine is a very simple appeal: make an agreement on the points of articles 1, 4 and 7 and ask all political forces to present it to the Chamber within 15 days “, said the leader of Italia viva, speaking in the Chamber. in the Senate “If you go to the clash, wall against wall, and you go to the secret ballot, you will have destroyed the lives of those boys,” he concluded. “Now we are one step away, one centimeter and here I am talking about politics: either make this room a place where the ultras meet and the result is not brought home, because the passage of the secret ballot is difficult and it is a risk for everyone, or taking political responsibility to find an agreement that is within reach, is one step away ».
First to RaiNews24 the deputy of the Democratic Party Alessandro Zan he had put him under pressure: “If Renzi is on the side of rights, the bill passes.” Before, having arrived in Piazza Vidoni for the demonstration organized by associations and collectives, he had already said: «To Renzi I say that mediation with the right is not possible, I tell him to defend the text to which Italia Viva has made a decisive contribution. I always hope that Renzi follows Biden and Von der Leyen and not Orban ».
The return to commission of the Zan Bill in numbers
The “destiny” of the Zan bill depends on the 17 senators from Italia viva and the 6 from the group of the Autonomies. Lega and Fratelli d’Italia, in fact, shortly before the opening of the Senate Chamber, asked the president of the Justice commission and rapporteur of the provision, the Northern League player Andrea Ostellari, to ask the Assembly for the provision to be postponed to committee. Against Pd, M5s and Leu, who in all can count, except for absences, on 119 votes. Numbers that could rise to 142 if Iv and the Autonomies vote against the postponement. To these numbers we could also add the votes of other senators of the Mixed, including several former pentastellati. Therefore, the front of the no to the referral could at least equal (if not exceed) the numbers obtained last week from the request for direct landing in the Chamber of the bill, bypassing the commission, or 145 votes in favor (in this case they would be against the postponement). The front of the yes to the return to the commission are the 51 senators from Forza Italia, 20 from FdI, 64 Lega, for a total of 134, which could increase by a few units. This morning Matteo Renzi, host of a television program, said he was against the return of the Zan bill to the committee.
The painting before the vote
A little more than an hour after the start of the session of the Chamber on the Zan bill, the groups in the Senate had consulted the abacus for what promises to be a game that will be played mainly on the thread of numbers. The vote of a dozen senators was under observation by both the former Giallorossi and the Renzians, it is explained.
The positions, at the moment, at least officially, remain the same: Pd, M5s and Leu aim at the definitive approval of the measure against homophobia without any changes to the text already dismissed last November by the Chamber. The center-right, on the other hand, points to substantial changes, first of all the reference to gender identity but also the part relating to initiatives to be promoted in schools. Finally, Italia viva: the Renzians voted in favor, together with the Autonomies group, for the direct landing in the Chamber, bypassing the Justice Commission. But they insist on the need to seek an agreement between all groups to modify some parts of the text and then approve it. And the votes of the 17 Renzian senators are decisive, both for the former Giallorossi front and for that of the government center-right.
For this reason, the spotlight is focused precisely on Matteo Renzi (who has already announced a speech in the Chamber in the afternoon) and on what his senators will do if the League, with the President of Justice Andrea Ostellari and rapporteur of the provision, should in the Chamber, once the general discussion on the Zan bill has been opened, ask for it to be referred back to the committee to verify the possibility of an agreement. But the unknown also concerns another possible move with which, circulating at Palazzo Madama in these hours, Forza Italia could attempt the blitz: that is, the request for suspension of the examination. What will the Renzians do in that case? In the e-news, the former premier explains that «today at 5 pm in the Chamber on the Zan bill. There are those who want to bury the law both on the right in the name of obstructionism and on the left in the name of ideologism. An agreement is possible, we are working in that direction. Because I am interested in people’s rights, not party flags ”.
Before the meeting, the flash mob of the Brothers of Italy against the Zan bill on homotransphobia was triggered before the discussion in the Senate began. Senators from Giogia Meloni’s party demonstrated under Palazzo Madama behind the banner “Free to be free, free to think”.