Uproar in Italy over devolution plans
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Your support makes all the difference.Italy's senate erupted in angry exchanges yesterday when government and opposition members slugged it out over Silvio Berlusconi's plans to devolve power to the regions.
The centre-left opposition is trying everything it can think of to throw the devolution bill off track, and has tabled 1,600 amendments to try to kill it. The opposition says that by devolving power over health, education and local policing to the regions, the Prime Minister's coalition government is overseeing the dissolution of the Italian state.
But the opposition is unlikely to get its way, because Mr Berlusconi has thrown the weight of his government's healthy majority behind the bill. Etched in his memory is the fact that in 1994 his first tenure as Prime Minister ended after seven months when his coalition partner Umberto Bossi, then as now the leader of the Northern League, pulled out in frustration at the government's failure to implement federalist reforms.
Mr Berlusconi is unlikely to make the same mistake twice. Under immense pressure from Mr Bossi, he has pushed the devolution bill to the top of the government's agenda and is expected to push it through parliament within a week.
Opponents of the bill see it as an attempt by the rich north to turn its back permanently on the relatively impoverished south. Industrialists, mayors and chambers of commerce also have grave misgivings about the reform.
"Devolution will signal the end of the national health service," said one opposition MP, Rosy Bindi, this week. "We will end up with a two-speed health system: minimal assistance, and care paid for by the citizens through health insurance."
Girolamo Sirchia, the Health Minister, denied the claim. "The right to a level of essential service will not be touched," he said.
Italian newspapers were speculating this week that the reform could result in schools in the north teaching pupils in dialect instead of Italian and police acting like vigilantes to hunt illegal immigrants.
Mr Bossi brushed aside such fears. "We will make the north and south manage public affairs with equal responsibility and that can only be useful for everyone."
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