(see related) Parliament is sovereign and will decide on a proposal by the League party to scrap the two-term limit for regional governors rejected by a Senate committee, party secretary and deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini said onThursday.
"The proposal has been rejected at the committee stage and now it will be discussed in the assembly, which is sovereign and the citizens will know how to choose," said Salvini during an election campaign tour in Sardinia ahead of regional elections on Sunday.
"In my opinion, it is a shame to retire mayors and governors after two terms in office, even if they are very good, highly appreciated and voted for," he continued, after the Senate Constitutional Affairs Committee rejected the amendment presented by his right-wing majority party with coalition partners Brothers of Italy (FdI) and Forza Italia voting against.
"It is a mistake, because these days finding a good mayor and a good governor is not easy, and if citizens consider them to be good and want to re-elect them, they have the right to do so.
The League's position in this sense is clear," said Salvini.
Separately on Thursday the Conference of Regions, the forum for interregional institutional dialogue, sent a letter to RegionalAffairs Minister Roberto Calderoli requesting a meeting on the issue.
The Conference, composed of Italy's 21 regions and autonomous provinces, has repeatedly spoken out in favor of scrapping the limit on terms in office, most recently in December.
Meanwhile Liguria Governor Giovanni Toti, whose second term in office ends in 2025, said there is a "gigantic political short-circuit" on the issue.
"Lawmakers who are opposed to additional terms of office for governors and mayors have sometimes been sitting in parliament since the 1980s and 1990s, so a sort of geological era ago," said Toti.
"This happens in a Republic where there is no limit for the prime minister and for ministers and where the government is discussing the direct election of the prime minister," he added.
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