The Commission was discussing gender-based violence, but during a recess in proceedings, much of the committee, according to Matteo Zeppa, was busy talking about councillor stipends. This was the accusation levelled today, Wednesday 14 October, by the Rete representative, who delivered a scathing speech during the joint session of the Second and Fourth Commissions, dedicated to combating violence against women and domestic abuse.
The outburst targeted above all the majority’s priorities, accused of failing to prepare an agenda in time on such a sensitive issue, despite twenty days having passed since the previous session.
The harshest moment concerned what allegedly happened during the recess requested by the majority to finalize its own document.
“Aside from the few majority members who scrambled to put it together at the last minute, despite having had the chance to do so earlier, meanwhile the vast majority of committee members were busy talking about councillor stipends,” Zeppa charged.
He continued: “I’m still astonished, after fifteen years, to have to discuss gender violence in a joint committee where three-quarters of the members are talking about councillor stipends. It is truly dispiriting, because evidently these four walls that have hosted us, and then those of Palazzo Pubblico, are completely detached from any sense of reality.”
According to the Rete councillor, then, while the aim should have been to find common ground on measures to combat gender violence, the attention of most of those present shifted instead to compensation tied to council activity and to previously scheduled meetings.
“You started getting worked up about councillor stipends and about meetings you’d arranged that now won’t happen. But that wasn’t the point,” he insisted.
The controversy also stems from how the agenda was managed. Zeppa recalled that Rete had already announced, twenty days earlier, its intention to present its own document, and that the very need to complete the debate had been one of the reasons for reconvening the Commission.
In his view, the majority had instead only addressed the matter during today’s session, requesting a roughly half-hour recess to prepare the text.
“What emerged today is that on a subject like this, this majority didn’t have an agenda ready, so much so that you had to ask for a recess. This saddens me and makes me think very poorly of the situation,” he stated.
Zeppa also criticized the failure to involve the opposition in drafting the document. Despite being present and having already prepared a proposal, Rete, he argued, was never consulted to check whether common ground could be found.
“It is equally dispiriting that we stayed here and no one called on us to see if certain points could align. No one.”
Hence the political conclusion of his remarks: “In this case, what mattered wasn’t reaching agreement on gender violence, but on councillor stipends.”
The councillor then announced the withdrawal of Rete’s agenda item, leaving the majority free to vote on its own text.
“I’ll make this easier: I’ll withdraw my agenda item, so you can vote on yours, cobbled together in two minutes,” he said, expressing hope for greater sensitivity on the issue of gender violence in future sessions.
The outburst closed on an even bitterer note, aimed at the very way politics is conducted.
“I’m coming to realize – and I take a cue from the words spoken months ago by President Bronzetti – that this kind of politics no longer belongs to me. The political sense has worn away: the sense of actually tackling issues, rather than piling them one on top of another.”
Finally, the words with which Zeppa restated the full extent of his disappointment: “It was better when there were political clashes: those debates were far better than this scrambling to find a solution, after having had twenty days available. This politics no longer belongs to me. I withdraw the agenda item.”
The Commission subsequently approved the majority’s agenda item, containing ten commitments directed at the Congress of State to strengthen prevention, victim protection, and measures to combat gender-based violence.
