Italy's Renzi moves closer towards curbing Senate's power to block change
By Gavin Jones ROME (Reuters) - Italy's Senate gave its final consent on Wednesday to cutting its own powers, taking Prime Minister Matteo Renzi a step closer towards limiting its ability to bring down an elected government and block legislation. Since taking office two years ago, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has staked his political future on the bill to effectively abolish the upper house Senate as an elected chamber. He says this will make Italy more governable but his critics say it reduces democratic checks and balances. It was the fifth and penultimate reading of the bill, which aims to streamline the lawmaking process. Under the lengthy procedures required for constitutional changes, the Chamber of Deputies must now pass the reform again. It will then face what promises to be a fiercely contested national referendum which Renzi hopes to hold in October. The Senate approved the bill to cut its own size and powers by 180 votes to 112, with one abstention. "You have written a page of history," Renzi told the senators in an impassioned speech before the vote. "The fact the Senate has shown it can reform itself means that nothing is impossible for Italy." The reform will cut the number of senators by two thirds, strip the Senate of its ability to bring down a government and sharply limit its scope to block legislation. It will also return to Rome some powers now held by the regional governments. "How many have dreamed of this moment," Renzi said, referring to the prospects for an end to Italy's "perfect bi-cameralism" by which each chamber of parliament has to approve the same final version of all laws. Renzi repeated that he would retire from politics if, in what he called "the mother of all battles," the reform is rejected in the referendum. "We will see whose side the people are on," said the 41-year-old former mayor of Florence, promising he and his allies would campaign "house by house" to win the popular ballot. Renzi has pursued constitutional change since he took office in an internal party tussle in February 2014. It has divided his own Democratic Party and caused ructions in the centre-right party of ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who first backed the changes but now calls them undemocratic. All the opposition parties are pledging to campaign against the reform at the referendum. Many commentators believe that if Renzi wins he will use the momentum to go to the polls in 2017, one year before his term of office expires. One reason why the stakes are so high is that the Senate is inextricably tied to Renzi's other main political reform: the introduction of a new, two-round voting system. The electoral reform has already been passed by parliament but it envisages direct elections only for the Chamber of Deputies and so cannot work unless the Senate is scrapped in its current form. The reformed Senate would be made up of regional councillors and mayors. Renzi says his package of reforms helped pull Italy's economy clear of recession in 2015 after three years of contraction, but his critics say the impact will be limited in a country still in the grip of vested interests. The rest of Renzi's package includes a new electoral law, education and labour market reforms and changes to the banking system. (Additional reporting by Isla Binnie; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
