29 September 2007

Cleaning Up Parliament, starting now

The process has started for the draft law that was presented some time ago by Italia dei Valori, setting out the disqualification from being a candidate for felons sentenced to more than 2 years, and on the ineligibility of company owners who are carrying out an activity that is a concession allocated by the State, for those who are in direct or indirect charge of the company or those who can determine its direction. The DDL {draft law} will be discussed in the Commission for Constitutional Affairs in a week’s time.
Our proposal has been stuck for months and I am convinced that without V-Day and my pressing the President of the Lower House it would never have seen the light of day.
The DDL asks for the application of the regulation that already applies to Local Councils which bars anyone who has been convicted and sentenced to at least 2 years in prison as well as a distinct separation between the interests connected to the State concessions and the possibility to influence how they are assigned. It’s not possible to be a concessionaire and a parliamentarian at the same time.
It is not an “ad personam” law as certain members of the Centre Right have declared while citing the concession of the TV frequencies and the interests of Silvio Berlusconi. The law is designed to put parliamentarians on an equal footing with people holding other public positions in relation to the regulations applied to them and to eliminate a conflict of interests.
I will keep you informed in detail about the progress of this DDL. I’ll tell you about who is supporting it and who is putting obstacles in its way, starting with the forthcoming discussion in the Commission for Constitutional Affairs chaired by Luciano Violante.

Posted by Antonio Di Pietro in Politics