Additional seat for an advisor causes disagreement and delays in the Sicilian Parliament
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In a Parliament besieged by women protesting to increase representation in municipal councils, it is time to vote on the reform of local authorities. However, the first attempt was unsuccessful, with President Gaetano Galvagno immediately postponing the proceedings by an hour and calling on party leaders to try to find an agreement on key provisions of the text.
Finding agreement proves difficult as there is an unusual and diverse majority on each provision. Particularly on the one allowing each mayor to appoint an additional assessor immediately. The 5 Star Movement officially wants it, and unofficially almost all majority parties do too, but the government is against it.
An amendment approved this morning in committee established that the appointment of the additional assessor must be budget-neutral, meaning other members of the council must cut their salaries to pay for the new colleague. The mayor cannot reallocate the budget from other areas by cutting services.
“There are no more excuses for anyone at this point,” commented 5 Star leader Nuccio Di Paola. However, there is no general agreement on this or other provisions. Starting with the one that should increase the quota of women in councils to 40%, raising it from the base level of 20%.
This could be the first provision that the Parliament votes on. Its fate will depend on whether the vote is secret or not. In the first case, the increase in women’s representation would likely be rejected, despite the thousands of political, union, and advocacy figures calling for more space in politics from this morning.
The current attempt to break the deadlock is to draft a text including 4 or 5 articles with broad agreement and only vote on those. However, even this solution faces obstacles. As of 5 pm, the Parliament has not yet voted on anything.
La poltrona per un assessore in più: non c’è intesa, l’Ars parte in salita
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