Because the M5s-Pd majority in the Senate staggers
Conte spoke of a "broad response to the holding of the majority" in the Senate. That "broad" clashes with the four more votes obtained than the minimum necessary. Two of which came from the lifetime senators Monti and Cattaneo.
Given the viral emergency conditions in which we find ourselves, with the risk of the curfew to be imported from France and the Christmas confinement , we can understand and even share the sigh of relief of the government and the majority for the narrow escape in the Senate in the vote on the so-called budget gap due to a further 22 billion euro deficit. At least 161 votes were needed, equivalent to the absolute majority of the assembly, and the government obtained 165: “even” four more. Rightly the minister (grillino) of relations with the Parliament, Federico d'Incà, at the government desk, in place of the Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte engaged in Capri, applauded the announcement of the result.
Then Conte, back from Capri, and other ministers were able to serenely participate in the now traditional convivial meeting at the Quirinale with a reassured – himself – president of the Republic in view of the European Council. In which the Prime Minister is able to participate without the inconvenience, so to speak, of a parliamentary defeat demonstrating the latent crisis in which a very composite majority has lived for some time. Whose main party or movement, that of the 5 Stars, is divided between governors and anti-governmentists, on the verge of a split.
If the relief is understandable and – I repeat – even shared, the emphatic tone of the Prime Minister is not at all. Who from Capri and then also to Rome even spoke of " broad confirmation of the majority holding ", despite the usual, chronic narrowness of the numbers of the Senate. That "broad" clashes with the four more votes obtained than the minimum necessary. Two of which came from the life senators Mario Monti and Elena Cattaneo. Who, for heaven's sake, have all the rights of others duly elected and not appointed by the President of the Republic for having "illustrated the Fatherland", as Article 59 of the Constitution says. But usually even in the highest place, that is, at the Quirinale, when governments are formed and the self-sufficient majority is assessed, neither senators by law are taken into account, as former heads of state, as Giorgio Napolitano is in this legislature, or presidential-nominated senators. Three other votes, failing which the government would have been saved only by two, stopping at 162, came from former force workers of the mixed group who still consider themselves to be in the opposition, or at least extraneous to the majority: Sandra Lonardo Mastella, Raffaele Fantetti and Gaetano Quagliariello.
The latter, formerly "vicar president" of the Forza Italia senators, as stated on Wikipedia, was keen to clarify, in an interview with Dubbio , the "exception" character of "our yes to the government", agreed to make up for the absences of colleagues of the majority prevented by the virus. And for whom one should decide to resort to "remote voting", ie telematic, said the senator, who was forced to vote yesterday "in a closet" connected to the electronic system due to the conditions in which one works at Palazzo Madama, respecting the distances imposed by the risk of contagion.
On the merits of the government's action, Quagliariello denounced the absence of "a strategy in this contingency" and "a crazy delay", because "the problem is not just hunting for the billion, but having concrete and credible projects" . Without which – the senator and professor warned – we risk "losing money or making them arrive late" from Europe.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/perche-la-maggioranza-m5s-pd-al-senato-barcolla/ on Thu, 15 Oct 2020 05:00:11 +0000.