Italian PM's plea for special powers may fail

THE DEMAND for emergency powers over the Italian economy by the Prime Minister, Giuliano Amato, was given a cold reception yesterday, and it was uncertain whether it would be granted by parliament, at least in the form he wants.

While the opposition Northern League charged that the plan would amount to a coup d'etat, grave doubts were also expressed by three of the four parties supporting Mr Amato's government.

The three-year special powers, based on a German model, would enable the government to take urgent economic and fiscal action at times of danger to the economy without needing the approval of parliament. Mr Amato yesterday tried to reassure the Senate that he was not seeking to usurp its authority.

He was not asking for full powers, he said, 'because full powers are outlawed by the constitution'. But he did want to avoid the lengthy parliamentary procedures that thwarted attempts at rapid action. 'The proposal is an attempt to arrest the slow and dangerous erosion of democracy,' he said.

But coalition party leaders were not convinced. Gerardo Bianco, floor leader of the Christian Democrats, the biggest government party, said that the government needed special powers, 'but this cannot happen by depriving parliament of its powers of guidance and control'. It would 'not help efforts to clean up the economy and in my opinion is an error'. The Socialists also agreed that parliament must retain its authority.

Luigi Granelli, the Christian Democrat Party's deputy floor leader in the Senate, branded the plan as creeping presidentialism. Opposition members spoke of 'authoritarian moves' and 'economic terrorism'.

The Republicans, another coalition party, objected that it would make the government immune even from the possible disapproval of its member parties. The proposal, said an economic spokesman, 'does not encourage confidence in the capacity of this government to do something worthwhile'.

Constitutional experts were uncertain about the legality of the unprecedented plan, while the three main trade unions supported the idea in principle as long as they had a greater say in decision-making.

The parties have five days to decide whether to give Mr Amato the powers he wants - the debate in parliament has been fixed for next Wednesday. Despite all the reservations, he may well get them, partly because Italy's economic crisis calls for desperate measures and partly because a 'no' would probably lead to his resignation and a fresh election, which the badly discredited government parties dread.

Meanwhile, a further day of battle to prop up the lira indicated that the international money markets were not impressed by Mr Amato's proposal, or his other plans, announced on Wednesday, to crack down on tax-dodging and to privatise two state-owned firms.

A somewhat cautious welcome, however, has come from Italy's industrialists, who stressed that the government had still not done nearly enough to rescue the economy and must take far more drastic steps in the immediate future. If it did not do so, a leading member of the industrialists' confederation, Confindustria, said, 'industry will be forced to choose between a slow death and a quick one'.

Police raided a flat yesterday and arrested Raffaele Stolder, a suspected boss of the Camorra, the Naples crime organisation, on murder and robbery charges, AP reports.