It was supposed to be the day of mea culpa, the day of responsibility for both the majority and the opposition, after yesterday’s confusion in Montecitorio over the government’s report on the budget variance. Instead, the court turned into a ring. But let’s start from the beginning.
Two days ago, thanks to a lightning bolt of the Council of Ministers and the night work of the Commission, it was possible to vote on the text again yesterday morning. The work in Montecitorio begins with the explanations of votes and one of the first to intervene is Angelo Bonelli, who in his speech criticizes the majority for the slip of the day.
“Yesterday the right-wing parliamentarians decided to stay on the couch or lose themselves in the Montecitorio rooms by not coming to work. You made the young people who receive the basic income look lazy when you are the first not to come here to Parliament, despite being well paid for it”, said Bonelli. Who keeps talking about the campaign, presented a few days ago, by the Ministry of Tourism “Open to wonder” with Botticelli’s Venus as a virtual influencer for Italy.
«A few days ago, the Minister of Tourism Santanchè launched a bizarre campaign to promote Italy in the world, spending 9 million euros on a video. Too bad, however, that most of these images were not shot in Italy, but in Slovenia, and the wine being promoted was not Italian, but Slovenian! But aren’t you a little ashamed of how you run this country? You’re not the least bit embarrassed,” Bonelli thundered before holding up a sign with the Venus and the words “Open to Incompetence.”
After Bonelli, Matteo Richetti of the Third Pole spoke, but the President of the Chamber, Lorenzo Fontana, was forced to interrupt him because, in the meantime, Bonelli had fallen ill. The green deputy is taken to the ward in a wheelchair and then transported to the Gemelli hospital for further examinations. He will be discharged shortly thereafter.
Meanwhile, work resumes. Most seem compact and want to reject any inferences about a supposed rupture. They did the math earlier, some agencies speak of a fiery atmosphere in the meeting of the Forza Italia group with a confrontation between Paolo Barelli and Alessandro Cattaneo in the absences of the previous day.
The turn of the majority’s mea culpa comes first with Maurizio Lupi of Noi Moderati, then with the leader of the group in the Chamber for Lega Riccardo Molinari and finally with the leader of the group of the Brothers of Italy Tommaso Foti. “Not because we were asked, but because we consider it a duty, we apologize to voters and Prime Minister Meloni for what happened yesterday” .
“We had never given this show – he continued – but if we have to make the list and we are told” that the absentees of the majority were doing “the long weekend of April 25th, I would advise the opposition to look at their absences, because no there is a bridge for the majority and a bridge for the opposition. There is a common sense of responsibility.” And already here oppositions began to resound, but the climax had not yet been reached. Foti added: “We do not like that those who come to lecture us on institutions, coincidentally, just yesterday, chose ” l’Aventino” in the Justice Commission, just because Undersecretary Delmastro showed up, in full swing”. ask for the resignation of this or that person in this Chamber. I regret not having you as a colleague anymore (you are the only one who resigned)».
The President of the Chamber, Lorenzo Fontana, is obliged to intervene to restore order in the Chamber, but the situation seems hopeless.
The deputies of the Democratic Party, together with those of the Italian Green-Left Alliance, abandoned their work while from the benches of the Brothers of Italy the cries: “Out! Out”. Tensions mount and as Deputy dem Nicola Stumpo is leaving, he stops to have a lively discussion with the group of Brothers from Italy, a discussion which quickly degenerates to the point where the quaestors have to intervene to avoid physical confrontation. point, the session is suspended for 5 minutes.
In his speech, Foti decides to address a subject that had already been circulating long after the stumble in the Def of the majority: «We cannot forget that some quorums, functional to carry out the votes, that were established when this House had 630 deputies , remain unchanged, despite of the Chamber having been reduced to 400 members, and this is a problem referred, above all, to the offices of the Government”. A thesis that does not convince Roberto Giachetti of the Third Pole: , or, as Totò said, “the sum makes the total”, that is, the absolute majority, with the cut of parliamentarians, has nothing to do with it. The absolute majority depends on the number of parliamentarians, in percentage: before they were 316, now it’s 201. It’s the same thing!” In the end, the endorsement arrives both for the government’s report on the budget variation and for the Economic and Financial Document with 221 and 115 against; in the afternoon the green light of the Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti was relieved: “We’re going ahead as planned: we’re going to launch the decree-law on May 1st and then, always with that attitude of responsibility that seems to me to be bearing fruit, we’re going to go ahead – declared the minister on the sidelines of the work of the budget commission of Palazzo Madama in Def I believe that you learn from mistakes. So I hope that similar situations will not happen again in the future».
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.
