All to be redone. The government’s budget report goes to the Senate, but not to the House. The resolution would have authorized the government to use a larger deficit of 3.4 billion in 2023 and 4.5 billion in 2024. In Montecitorio the vote ends with 105 abstentions, 19 against and 195 in favor, 319 present and 214 voting. The majority stopped at 194 favorable votes, the 195th is by Giachetti from the Third Pole, but the absolute majority, necessary for the approval of the text, was 201, since the Chamber is composed of 400 deputies. The majority has 238 deputies: 118 from the Brothers of Italy, 66 from the League, 44 from Forza Italia and 10 from Noi Moderati. So, calculations at hand, 45 votes to go. Of these, 18 were on “mission” so they are justified absences, but 25 are unexcused absences: 11 from Liga, 9 from Forza Italia and 5 from Fratelli d’Italia. The majority left 43 votes on the street plus the 2 of Us Moderates make 45 in all. The Democratic Party and the 5 Star Movement abstained, while Action and Italia Viva voted against.
The first reaction came from Minister Giorgetti who, upon leaving the Chamber, declared to the reporters present: “There is no political problem, it’s just that the deputies either don’t know or don’t understand”. According to Agi Meloni, from London, he would have reacted by writing in the Fratelli d’Italia chat: “I have no words…”, even if official statements tend to reassure the result of the measure. «A bad slip, it was a bad impression, I think everyone should be held accountable.
We are not saving ourselves and nobody should be saving. But frankly, I don’t think it was a political signal, paradoxically it happened due to excessive security – declared Meloni – Now we need to do a deeper reflection on the parliamentarians on mission – he added – but we don’t see a political problem in that. The Def will be approved, we will keep our commitments ». Meanwhile, on the Transatlantic, on the faces of the majority deputies, we read the disorientation due to a stumble that no one had foreseen, but above all, no one knows how to answer the reporters who ask the same question: “And now what happens?”. In fact, it has been since the 2012 constitutional reform that a deviation has not obtained an absolute majority.
Fabio Rampelli, who presided over the Chamber during the vote, is perplexed and postpones everything until the meeting of the group’s leaders. Meeting that was postponed several times because the Council of Ministers was meeting in the meantime. Flash Council in which, at the proposal of the Minister of Economy Giancarlo Giorgetti, a new Report to Parliament is approved in which the balances of public finances already reported in the 2023 Economic and Financial Document are maintained, while the new report underlines the intentions of supporting the work and families covered by interventions planned for the Council of Ministers already scheduled for May 1st. In the evening comes the solution to the confusion: after the CDM, the text must be sent immediately to the Commission for approval overnight and then sent back to the two houses of Parliament. Today the vote in Montecitorio is scheduled for 11:30 am, while in the Senate for 2 pm. And so as not to make any new mistakes, last night Giorgia Meloni sent a service order to her parents so that they are all present both in the Commission and in the Chamber.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
