Differentiated autonomy, rain of amendments from the oppositions. But it is also a clash in the majority

High tension in the majority on Autonomy while the oppositions try to give battle with a shower of 2,400 amendments in the House committee. On the League's flagship measure - despite the fact that no one in the centre-right has presented proposed amendments as agreed - there is once again the dualism between the accelerations of Salvini's party and the braking of Forza Italia. Everything, or a lot, is played out on the examination time, with the appointment in June of the European vote affecting the parties' electoral campaign.

After the line dictated by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni herself ("On autonomy, go ahead with judgement, the government is the only one not to put pressure on Parliament"), yesterday it was the leader of the Italian national coalition Antonio Tajani who explained that in Montecitorio "it is important that the debate be broad" and therefore that it is possible to imagine that "the vote will be later" than the current date on the calendar, i.e. 29 April. FI, Tajani pointed out among other things, will 'watch over' the measure. "It is right that there should be a debate,' replied the Veneto governor Luca Zaia, 'as for vigilance, there is no need: it is everyone's autonomy, there is no political party that wants to run away with the booty.

A piqued reply that adds to the warning of the League's group leader Riccardo Molinari: pacta sunt servanda. "There is a majority agreement," the Lega Nord member recalled, "that foresees that the Autonomy will begin its discussion in the Chamber on 29 April. And we expect everyone to keep that commitment. We gave the go-ahead in the Commission on the premierate in the Senate. Pacts are respected'. Pacts respected for now by the Azzurri: no amendment has in fact arrived from the party in committee. But a part of Forza Italia makes it clear that they are keeping their hands free: 'No amendments in committee,' warn Francesco Cannizzaro and Annarita Patriarca, 'but there is still the Chamber. Moreover, 'we will have the opportunity to evaluate the many amendments presented by the opposition'.

'Our amendment proposals,' meanwhile, claim the Dems with Simona Bonafé, 'are all of merit. We will not accept any more tears: they must be discussed and voted on in committee". "It is a measure that destroys the unity of the country," accused M5s leader Giuseppe Conte. "Our thousand amendments are a cry of protest against those who are throttling the debate," pressed Avs with Filiberto Zaratti.

In the meantime, the measure is scheduled to be debated in the Chamber of Deputies on 29 April. A symbolic date - in the off-the-record reasoning of the leghisti - not so much to arrive at the final OK before the European elections but to guarantee the very survival of Autonomy. Basically, the important thing is that the text be armour-plated because the possible approval of an amendment would entail a return to Palazzo Madama at third reading and would not only imply the postponement of the final go-ahead after the European elections but could - it is feared - completely jeopardise the measure's approval.