A controversial regional autonomy bill devolving more powers from the national government to Italy's 20 regions moved from the Senate to the House Tuesday.
The bill is a pet policy move of the rightwing League party, whose Upper House Whip Massimiliano Romeo hailed the success of a majority pact with Premier Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy(FdI) party trading off the so-called differentiated autonomy move with Meloni's flagship policy of introducing the direct election of the Italian prime minister by the Italian people, another controversial move that would supposedly strip Italian presidents of some of their powers and move towards more authoritarian government.
Opposition centre-left Democratic Party (PD) leader Elly Schleincondemned the trade-off, saying that the autonomy measure wouldmake citizens already penalized by the north-south gap evenworse off in terms of public services.
She accused Meloni of trying to resurrect the League's one-time "secession design".
In its early days in the late 80s and early 90s the then Northern League campaigned to break the affluent north away from the poorer south and a supposedly parasitic central government.
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