ROME (Reuters) - Looking to speed up passage of a contested reform of Italy's upper house of parliament, the government moved the bill directly into the Senate chamber for debate on Wednesday, bypassing a preliminary committee review.
However, it was still not clear that Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has enough backing in the Senate to approve the bill when it eventually comes to a vote, probably next month, leaving the future of his centre-left government in doubt.
Politicians of all colours had presented more than 514,000 amendments to the planned Senate shake up, a move that had threatened to stall its progress through the committee stage and delay its transfer to the main chamber.
Renzi came to power last year promising to revitalise Italy and has said the fate of his government is linked to the reform, which aims to limit the Senate's powers and streamline the parliamentary process.
However many politicians, even from within Renzi's own Democratic Party (PD), have criticised a move to end the direct election of Senators, saying this will damage Italian democracy.
Having failed to strike an accord with party dissidents, Renzi's allies upped the tempo on Wednesday, jumping over the committee stage and setting up a showdown in the main chamber.
"This is not the PD's fault, but rather the fault of those who presented 500,000 amendments, something that has never been seen in the history of the republic," said Luigi Zanda, the head of PD lawmakers in the Senate.
Some 510,294 amendments came from one party alone, the opposition Northern League, and it has threatened to present up to 6 1/2 million amendments in the Senate chamber.
Such a manoeuvre could stretch out the discussions for weeks and months, but Renzi has said he wants the reform approved by Oct. 15, because after that date parliamentary business is dominated by budget discussions.
One way to curtail such filibustering would be to hold a confidence vote. If the government wins, all amendments get blasted aside. If it loses, it has to resign, opening the way for possible elections some three years ahead of schedule.
Renzi has a majority of less than 10 in the 320-seat Senate, but with a sizeable number of PD politicians speaking out against his reform, a confidence vote could be highly risky.
The reform will cut the number of senators to 100, most of whom will be drawn from regional councils. Once in place, they will no longer have a veto over core legislation or to unseat the government, leaving the lower house in the driving seat.