I was interested to read that the devolution vote has come back with a decisive "No" vote; No was 61.3%, 38.7% voted Yes. The crux was whether greater local power should be given to the regions on how money is spent; one of the emotive issues is that some in the North feel that "the South" gets too much of their "hard earned taxes" etc...
Only Lombardy voted "Si" and both Milan & the Veneto (expected to have large "Si votes) voted "No". The areas that had most to lose arguably were in the south & there's a load of tedious debate as to why the turn out in these areas were so low....
Interestingly, the reform bill was sponsored by the populist Northern League party whose leader, Umberto Bossi had made the progression of the bill a prerequisite for his continued support of Mr Berlusconi. He has raised the prospect that the Northern League will split from the centre-right coalition - a move that would undermine Mr Berlusconi's leadership of the opposition.
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