{"id":93525,"date":"2020-09-22T14:27:12","date_gmt":"2020-09-22T06:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=93525"},"modified":"2020-09-22T14:27:14","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T06:27:14","slug":"italy-votes-to-slash-size-of-parliament-by-a-third","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=93525","title":{"rendered":"Italy votes to slash size of parliament by a third"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/www.brudirect.com\/images\/news\/20200922_europe.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ROME,\u00a0Sept 22\u00a0(NNN-AGENCIES)\u00a0&#8212;<\/strong>Italy has voted to cut the size of the country&#8217;s parliament by more than a third, exit polls suggest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More than 67% of people voted in favour of the change, according to a projection from state broadcaster RAI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The number of MPs in the lower house will be reduced from 634 to 400. The senate will also be downsized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The referendum was pushed by the Five Star Movement, part of the governing coalition, which argued that the move would reduce costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The move, which cuts the total number of MPs and senators from 945 to 600, had already been pushed through parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But it needed to be backed by a referendum because it amends the constitution. The changes will have to be made before the 2023 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, a senior Five Star figure, described the result as &#8220;historic&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We can go back to having a normal parliament, with fewer privileges and 345 fewer seats,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last October, Five Star said streamlining parliament will save the country \u20ac1bn over 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However critics argue that the move will weaken democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The referendum was held alongside a small number of regional elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Right-wing opposition leader Matteo Salvini said he was aiming for a clean sweep however his party appeared to make one gain &#8211; the eastern region of Marche. It stayed in charge of two other regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The centre-left Democratic Party held on to three regions it already rules including Tuscany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The contest in Puglia was even, according to Ansa news agency. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ROME,\u00a0Sept 22\u00a0(NNN-AGENCIES)\u00a0&#8212;Italy has voted to cut the size of the country&#8217;s parliament by more than a third, exit polls suggest. More than 67% of people voted in favour of the change, according to a projection from state broadcaster RAI. The number of MPs in the lower house will be reduced from 634 to 400. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":93526,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[209],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93525"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/93526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}