Goodbye to the beauty contest, and it is immediately chaos in Montecitorio. The House Finance Committee passed a amendment to the tax decree filed yesterday by the Government which imposes a public tender (for a fee) for the assignment of TV frequencies, now free after the transition from analogue to digital. The previous Executive had instead planned to assign them free of charge to the major national broadcasters. Only the PDL and the Great South voted against the course correction signed by the Minister of Economic Development, Corrado Passera. Thus a sudden fracture opens in the strange majority that supports the Professor.
This morning, after the go-ahead from the Speaker of the Chamber, Gianfranco Fini, who declared the amendment admissible, pressure from the pidiellinis began for new last-minute corrections, which in the end, however, did not arrive. According to the Berluscones, the text filed by the executive it would not be the same on which the Bocconi students had agreed with the Cavaliere and with Angelino Alfano.
The most active was the former Minister of Economic Development, Paul Romans, who contacted the Undersecretary of the Prime Minister Antonio Catricalà asking him for direct mediation with Passera. But there was nothing to be done. And then off to the controversy: "As it is devised - said Romani after a meeting with the Minister for Relations with Parliament, Piero Giarda - the amendment will not allow Rai and Mediaset to participate in the tender. It's a serious matter. I have kept Letta and Alfano informed: I believe that the question will be the subject of the summit tonight” between the premier and the leaders of the majority.
Of a completely different opinion Pier Luigi Bersani: “We are calmly firm on the approach discussed and that the government has given – said the leader of the Democrats -, I did not understand why there was a second thought by the PDL. It is not known what were the reasons that led to this rethinking, we have not seen any amendments or anything else, it is clear that they must have been perhaps not only 'aesthetic' reasons, for us the government must go on”.
