Renzi falters as Catholics squeeze Italy's gay unions bill

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi admitted Monday he may have to surrender key parts of the gay civil unions bill if he has any chance of overcoming Catholic dissent to get it through parliament.

The draft law has run into stiff opposition not only from Italy's right wing, but also from the government's coalition partner, the New Centre Left, and members of the premier's own centre-left Democratic Party (PD).

"U-turn by the PM," read the headline in La Stampa daily, after Renzi said he did not have the numbers to pass the bill as is.

There are two main stumbling blocks: a clause which would allow partners in a same sex relationship to adopt each other's biological children, and legal rights which many claim are too similar to those granted by traditional marriage.

Renzi has declared he is ready to call for a confidence vote in the government over the issue -- but will still have to significantly water it down first, or risk being forced to resign.

"Adoption of step children will be sacrificed for speed," said Il Fatto Quotidiano daily, adding that the bill's author, who has refused all attempts at creating a slimline version, is now expected to vote against her own legislation.
The bill, which establishes civil unions for both gay and heterosexual couples, is currently stalled in the Italian Senate after the opposition Five Star Movement (M5S) last week scuppered a bid by the PD to accelerate its approval.

The Senate is due to resume discussion of it on Wednesday. The M5S has sworn that this time it will vote for the bill in its entirety, but a sceptical Renzi is instead racing to secure cross-party backing for the confidence vote.

"There cannot be first and second class children... but in Italy at the moment there isn't even a law on civil unions," he told journalists at the Foreign Press Association, suggesting the adoption part of the bill would be scrapped.

Critics of the 41-year-old premier say that while he has sworn to bring civil unions to the last major country without them in Western Europe, the practising Catholic is not ready to put his head on the line for the full package.

The last attempt to push through such a bill was scuppered in 2007 by mass demonstrations against the centre-left government of Romano Prodi, and the failure was cited as one of the reasons behind the fall of his government.
Source :AFP