Leonardo Donà: Attack on deputy reflects growing tensions in Italian politics | International

The sequence of the last brawl between MPs in the middle of the House leaves no one indifferent. A routine debate on the law on differentiated autonomy for the regions in the Chamber of Deputies in Rome ended with a bizarre scene on Wednesday afternoon. Pushing, kicking, hitting… An opposition deputy is leaving the chamber in a wheelchair. Another throws an objection against the government bench. The scuffle is an extreme example of the political tensions that exist in Italy.

Italian politics is constantly marked by tensions within the governing coalition and between the government and the opposition. Rebukes, confrontations… all of this happens on a regular basis. Violence is not so frequent, but it is not entirely uncommon either, unlike in the Spanish parliament, where confrontations are not physical but figurative. In Italy there are violent clashes between deputies and senators practically every year, something that has happened with various governments. Despite these incidents, what happened on Wednesday was particularly serious, with the intervention of medical teams to treat the attacked deputy.

The tensions that are being experienced in Italian politics are fueled by some particularly thorny law proposals of the far-right government coalition that are causing blisters. One is the law of differentiated autonomy, proposed by the League and which aims to establish the mechanism by which the regions that contemplate it can request from the government the authority to autonomously manage certain matters that are currently the jurisdiction of the central State, such as taxation, education, transport or health. The opposition accused Meloni’s executive of wanting to “divide the country in two” and denounced that this rule would penalize the traditionally more backward southern regions, and that it would increase the gap with the north.

The second is the improvement of premiershipwhich is being debated in the Senate and which includes changes to the constitution aimed at strengthening the powers of the prime minister. The idea of ​​the far-right government is that citizens choose the head of the executive directly with their votes in elections, without going through parliament, as has been done so far in Italy and in most parliamentary democracies.

The latest controversies, including jostling, insults and shouting in and around parliament, have taken place over disparate issues such as cultured meat, as in November 2023 when a group of deputies scuffled with several members of farmers’ unions in front of government headquarters; finance, as in April 2022, when microphones flew in a session of the parliamentary finance commission; the minimum wage, as in December 2023, when there was a commotion in parliament during a debate on the issue; or the autonomy of the regions, a traditionally delicate issue that had already caused friction between MPs last April.

Although the Constitution establishes that “citizens entrusted with public functions have the duty to execute them with discipline and respect,” in Italy there has been a widespread feeling of a certain tolerance towards unlimited parliamentary conflict and the idea that everything is fine; so far, this type of disturbance has not had notable consequences and has not aroused major signs of disapproval, not even among citizens.

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Wednesday’s show started in such a way that the unexpected result was not predicted. Some members of the opposition sang the national anthem and waved flags in criticism of the rule proposed by the League led by Matteo Salvini, which, according to them, would be a great loss for the South. Leonardo Dono, a deputy from the 5 Star Movement, attempted to hand an Italian flag to the League’s Minister of Regional Affairs Roberto Calderoli in protest. Two security guards prevented him from approaching the ruler. In a matter of seconds, a group of representatives of the government coalition was hit by an avalanche and riot broke out without saying a word. In the heat of the fight one MP inadvertently pushed the minister, shortly after another grabbed him by the shoulders and carried him out of the scene. League deputy Igor Izzi, very close to Salvini, punched several times in the head of deputy Dono, who fell to the ground and left the room in a wheelchair accompanied by a medical team.

The scene was complete with Democratic Party deputy Nico Stumpo allegedly throwing a chair against the government benches and chants and provocative gestures. League deputy Domenico Fargiule was expelled for making a gesture Bella Ciao. Furgiul’s gesture was interpreted as a reference to the Decima Flottiglia MAS (X MAS), the military unit that was under the direct orders of dictator Benito Mussolini. The MP later justified himself by accusing him of making a cross with his hands, as the judge does in the television program. X Factor To show their displeasure at the chanting of the opposition.

“Out with the Fascists”

On Thursday, when debate resumed in the Chamber of Deputies, embers of hostility still remained. Opposition lawmakers once again raised the rant Bella Ciao And they shouted “Kick the fascists out of parliament”, after the League’s number two, Andrea Cripe, defended that singing the partisan anthem is “worse” than making the X MAS sign, “because communism caused millions of deaths”. “Unfortunately, communists continue to exist in this parliament,” the politician added.

Before the interventions resumed in the Chamber, the secretary of the Democratic Party, Ellie Shlein, asked her ranks to avoid “falling into provocations” and announced that she would speak with other members of the opposition “to evaluate possible joint actions.” “We will not let this aggression pass as a normal event, what has happened cannot be silenced,” the opposition leader cried. And she warned: “The opposition will be extremely harsh against reforms that eliminate the constitutional framework of the country,” in reference to the latest norms proposed by the executive of Giorgia Meloni, the differentiated autonomy of the regions and the reform that aims to introduce the direct election of the prime minister, which until now has been the responsibility of parliament.

The government has tried to downplay what happened and denounced that it is an attempt to undermine “Giorgia Meloni’s G-7” in reference to the international summit that brings together the leaders of the world’s richest countries in the south of Italy. “We are presenting an image worse than the one we normally give. It seems to me that a Suicide“, protested Ignazio La Russa, president of the Senate of the Brothers of Italy.

The Italian opposition has also condemned the way the melee was recorded in the parliamentary minutes of Wednesday’s session, which speak of “disorders” in the room. “Obviously, what happened yesterday cannot be summarized in the minutes with the word disorders, it is an attack. This must be clear between us,” lamented Federico Fornaro, deputy of the Democratic Party. “It was not a disorder, but an aggression committed by members of the squad,” Marco Pellegrini of the M5S denounced, using a term that alludes to violent actions committed by fascist groups during the time of Italian fascism.

This Thursday, the opposition protested by waving the country’s flag during a debate in the upper house, while government senators responded by singing the national anthem.

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