Agriculture decree: it is law, final green light from the Chamber of Deputies

With 148 votes in favour and 71 against, the Chamber of Deputies has definitively approved and converted into law the Agriculture Bill, which had already received the vote of confidence from Montecitorio in the early afternoon of Thursday, 11 July. The 15-article measure containing 'provisions for agricultural, fishing, and aquaculture enterprises, as well as for enterprises of strategic national interest' was approved by the majority, with the opposition against.

The text approved by the Chamber of Deputies, which contains a set of rules to support the agricultural and fishing economy, has been strengthened during its parliamentary passage through the Senate; measures to protect labour and to combat 'caporalato' have been introduced. The measure includes, among other things, a clampdown on the installation of ground-mounted photovoltaic systems on agricultural land, and measures on the former Ilva with the introduction of a rule to protect future buyers of company assets. Measures are also envisaged to deal with the damage to farms and crops, from blue crab to Xylella.The Chamber of Deputies approved the confidence in the Agriculture bill with 181 votes in favour and 111 against.

The agriculture decree, said Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida in the Chamber of Deputies, 'was born out of a broad and constant confrontation between the majority forces but also with part of the opposition forces in order to tackle emergency problems', from 'certain drought phenomena' to 'African swine fever'.

Very critical were the oppositions. "We are in front of the umpteenth vote of confidence, which will not be the last, on a measure that is fundamental for the country in the wake of a methodical debasement of parliamentary democracy,' said MP Antonella Forattini, expressing the PD's vote against the vote of confidence. 'We are actually voting on an omnibus decree that does not provide structural answers to the agricultural sector, which has been suffering for too long: the climate emergency and swine fever have not arrived now, but you continue to chase them belatedly. And only now do you realise the drought that is gripping the southern regions after the ineffectiveness of 14 months of commissionership that produced no appreciable results'.