Tomorrow, Assopopolari, the powerful association of cooperative banks, will present its counter-proposal on the government reform which was hastily drafted by a team of qualified scholars of the caliber of Angelo Tantazzi, Piergaetano Marchetti and Alberto Quadrio Curzio.
Despite the thunderbolts launched by Assopopolari in the aftermath of the blitz by the Renzi government which, by decree, abolished the per capita vote for the ten largest cooperative banks, the counter-proposal will try to soften the text of the reform without attacking it with a hard face. The central idea, according to reliable rumors, would be to mitigate the overcoming of the per capita vote through the introduction of a limit on share ownership in cooperative banks in order to reduce their contestability.
But, pending the official proposals from Assopopolari, the maneuvers to sabotage the reform have already begun in Parliament by the usual transversal lobby which has been opposing any change for twenty years. The Ncd patrol is particularly active, backed by MPs from the League, Forza Italia and, in part, also from the M5S and the minority of the Democratic Party.
Prime Minister Renzi harshly replied to them when yesterday he said he did not have time to devote to small parties. Renzi was referring to the institutional reforms but also to the other reforms on the table, starting with that of the cooperative banks and it is clear that, if the Gattopardesque maneuvers go beyond a reasonable request to improve the reform, he will not hesitate to resort to a vote of confidence by putting Ncd at the crossroads: either the yes to the reform or the government crisis.
