The Democratic Party goes down in the Senate and the Government wobbles dangerously. The clamorous rejection of the candidate of the Democratic Party for the presidency of the Constitutional Affairs Commission of the Senate, a fundamental junction for the new electoral law, after the resignation of Anna Finocchiaro, who became minister of the Gentiloni government, has opened a laceration in the majority that can set fire to the whole picture political and bring early elections closer if it is not quickly reassembled.
It all happened in the middle of the day, when, in a secret ballot, the Constitutional Affairs Commission rejected the Pd candidate for the presidency, Sergio Pagliari, who collected only 11 votes, electing the Sicilian senator Salvatore Torrisi from the group of minister Alfano (popular area) who got 16 votes from a Milazzo majority who united Forza Italia, the grillini, the Bersanian splits of the Democratic Party and some "sniper" of the majority.
The Democratic Party, which risks not having any presidency of the Constitutional Affairs Commission in the two Chambers, is not in it and cries out for treason by pointing the finger at the Bersanians who reply by claiming that the shipwreck is the result of divisions within the Democratic Party itself and the revolt of the senators who did not want Pagliari's candidacy. Pd and Ap arrive on the brink of a sensational split which is avoided only when Alfano himself takes the field asking Torrisi to give up the presidency. But Torrisi replies: "Imagine if I resign: we are not in the Soviet Union". Tough against Alfano's reply: "Torrisi, if you don't resign, you're out of the party."
Today we will see if the majority will be able to compose themselves but the leaders of the Democratic Party are turning to Prime Minister Gentiloni and President Mattarella to show them the unsustainability of the situation. "How can you go on like this" ex-premier Matteo Renzi told Gentiloni and launched an appeal to the Head of State. Faced with the tangled situation, Renzi also asked whoever elected Torrisi to put forward a proposal for the reform of the electoral law with the obvious aim of highlighting how difficult it is to find a parliamentary synthesis on the revision of the Italicum and is therefore increasingly difficult to keep alive the Government and the legislature.
However, the former Prime Minister declared that he did not want to hear about the crisis and that the Gentiloni Executive "must be supported".
(Last update at 17.58)
