(Finance) – “There is now a material Constitution that gives the President broader powers than the Constitution originally provided for. And a direct election of the Prime Minister could reduce the constant use of these additional powers. Don’t eliminate them , reduce them. It would be an act of health for our Constitution, not an act of weakness. Because it would leave to the President of the Republic those tasks that the founding fathers largely wanted and which he has deservedly had to expand over time, to make up for political deficiencies, including those of the need for politics to defend itself from the too short duration of governments”. This is what the president of the Senate, Ignazio La Russaduring the end-of-year greeting ceremony with the parliamentary press.
Words that have reopened the controversy over the reform envisaged by the Casellati bill, triggering the opposition’s attack. “Today the President of the Senate and founder of Fratelli d’Italia, Ignazio La Russa, threw away the mask and indicated what the true objective of the reform of the premiership is: to reduce the current powers of the President of the Republic, despite the vast majority of Italians, as the polls show, he has repeatedly demonstrated that he has full confidence in the Quirinale’s work – he commented Federico Fornaro, member of the Constitutional Affairs Commission of the Chamber and exponent of the Democratic Party –. All the more reason therefore to oppose in Parliament and if necessary with the referendum the prime ministership in a Melonian style, certainly not designed to respond to Italy’s needs, but rather to demolish the parliamentary republic to its foundations and try to limit the institutional action of Mattarella, constantly anchored in full respect of the balances enshrined in our Constitution”.
“It’s my fault that I always forget that when we talk about reforms we need to be careful of those who don’t understand due to constitutional illiteracy or those who pretend not to understand due to inveterate bad faith. Today – he replied The Russian in a note – all the journalists present at the Scaldino ceremony understood well, I believe, my words on the future constitutional reform project which does not modify the powers of the President of the Republic. The total respect towards President Mattarella is as obvious as it is clear.”