Rejected by all the groups present in the Senate Hall the request of the 5 Star Movement to use the urgent procedure in the discussion of the bill, signed by Matteo Richetti, on the annuities of deputies, senators and regional councilors.
The text, approved last week by the Chamber of Deputies, arrived today, 1 August, at the Constitutional Affairs commission of Palazzo Madama.
If the senators had voted Yes, the time available to the committee on the merits to discuss the provision would have been halved, from 60 to 30 days. Not only that, the urgency procedure means that the text arrives in the Chamber for discussion directly in the following session and allows each parliamentary group to present only one speaker, de facto reducing the technical time necessary for the approval of a law.
The No instead means that the text will have to comply with the normal legislative procedure, passing through the Constitutional Affairs Commission before the vote. At this point, given that the work on Palazzo Madama will be suspended until 12 September for the summer break, the final vote on the bill should arrive no earlier than the second half of September.
The No to the emergency request unleashed the wrath of the 5 Star Movement, giving way to a fiery debate in the Chamber, which continued in the tension between interruptions and protests.
"With the request for urgency - explained the leader of the PD, Luigi Zanda - the senators of the Movimento 5 stelle want to appear to the Italian public opinion as the champions of anti-politics, of anti-partyism, as representatives of the anti-system".
“The annuity they don't want to lose – reads Beppe Grillo's blog even before the Senate voted against – and they are organizing for a sensational about-face in the Senate. The law on annuities can be discussed and approved immediately and in fact we have asked the Senate to urgently discuss the bill approved last week in the House. Today citizens will know exactly who voted to keep their annuity as long as possible ”, wrote the pentastellato leader.
No urgency procedure, however, could have avoided the postponement to September given that Parliament closes on Friday 5 August.
