The Chamber has rejected all the amendments for gender equality in the Italicum. The Chamber rejected by secret ballot the bipartisan amendment to the electoral law which provided for the alternation of gender in the list, forbidding that there could be two candidates of the same sex in sequence. No also to the second amendment, also bipartisan and also rejected by secret ballot, which provided that neither gender can be represented in excess of 50% for the list leaders. Also rejected was the third and last amendment which provided for the proportion of 40-60% for the list leaders. Matteo Renzi, however, assures: "We will respect the women's quota".
The secret ballot had been requested by 39 MPs from Forza Italia, Fdi, Ncd and Udc. After the third rejection, the Democratic Party asked the Speaker of the Chamber Laura Boldrini to suspend the examination of the electoral reform, and many deputies left the Chamber in a sign of dissent. Spirits among the Democrats are divided: "Absolutely nothing changes for the Democratic Party because we keep our commitment to 50/50 on the electoral lists even stronger," said Lorenzo Guerini. Embittered was the Speaker of the Chamber, Laura Boldrini, who had symbolically sided in favor of the changes by exhibiting a showy white scarf: «As Speaker of the Chamber, I respect the vote of the Chamber on the amendments concerning gender equality. Nonetheless, I cannot deny my deep sadness because a great opportunity has been lost, to the detriment of the whole country and of democracy". However, the premier and secretary of the Democratic Party, Matteo Renzi, assures: "In the democratic lists, alternation will be ensured". And Renzi should be present on Tuesday morning at the assembly of deputies of the Democratic Party, scheduled for 8.30 for a new discussion on the electoral law.
The two main parties that support Italicum, Pd and Forza Italia, therefore split on women's quotas. The first amendment was rejected with 335 no. Instead, there were 227 votes in favor. A number of yeses which, although the secret ballot makes it impossible to verify exactly how the various groups voted overall, is still lower than the number of deputies of the Democratic Party, equal to 293 deputies. Forza Italia said no to the quotas because "they would be a law with obvious problems of unconstitutionality", according to what was stated by Francesco Paolo Sisto, blue deputy and rapporteur on the reform of the voting system. The government, for its part, had made it known that it would defer to the Chamber on gender equality.
