No double unanimous green light from the House and Senate on the occasion of the Day against Violence against Women. In fact, the agreement reached just a few days ago between the majority and the opposition on the text that regulates sexual violence and introduces women’s free consent has collapsed. However, the agreement on the crime of femicide holds, but only by a whisker: the centre-right and centre-left vote unitedly in Montecitorio (and the minority deputies make noise with their keys in the Chamber, like the movement of women and girls born after the femicide of Giulia Cecchettin).
But throughout the day the debate was punctuated and marked by a harsh clash between the two sides: the fuse was the decision of the majority in the Senate commission (driven, they say, above all by the League and FdI) to stop the law on sexual violence and the consent for further in-depth analysis on a text that only a few days ago had passed the Chamber with a unanimous vote, after contacts between Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein, architects of the agreement. According to the opposition, the centre-right is “now reneging on this agreement, violating the agreements”.
So much so that it is the Dem leader herself who calls the Prime Minister to ask for an account. “I spoke to Giorgia Meloni and asked her to enforce the agreements”, reports the dem leader in Transatlantico. The law «was approved unanimously less than a week ago. Now it would be serious if, on the skin of women, post-election showdowns were held within the majority. I hope Meloni will enforce the agreements”, he adds.
Meanwhile, the opposition in the Senate abandoned the work of the Justice Commission in protest. But President Giulia Bongiorno assures that there is no intention of scuttling the provision: «It was already scheduled for discussion in the Chamber today, it would have been wonderful, but we are interested as legislators in being responsible, which means that this law will clearly be made», but «I prefer a law made on the 13th or 31st than making it on the 25th with a gap», she underlines. «It is not an initiative of the government, but of the groups, which have asked for an in-depth analysis, in particular the League», makes it clear the minister for relations with Parliament Luca Ciriani. The fact is that the die has been cast, the measure does not go to the Senate chamber for the green light as initially expected and, in a “triangulation” between the two branches of Parliament, the opposition attacks with drawn sword: in the Chamber, where the bill on the crime of femicide is being discussed, Minister Roccella is present, to whom all the minorities ask for clarification. The minister does not respond to the accusations. “It’s a turnaround by the majority, we no longer trust it,” says the Iv group leader Maria Elena Boschi. «The Prime Minister was disheartened by the Brothers of Italy and the League», thunders the dem Debora Serracchiani. “The stop to the law on free and current consent is very serious”, urges the Avs group leader Peppe De Cristofaro.