The Italian “parliament is sovereign and won’t accept interference,” the President of Italy’s lower house of parliament, Roberto Fico, a member of the governing coalition, said on Italian TV Wednesday morning.
The Vatican has invoked its sovereign status under a 1929 treaty with Italy to protest the draft legislation, arguing that it could restrict the religious freedom guaranteed the church under that accord.
Alessandro Zan, an openly gay legislator who introduced the bill — known in Italy as the “Zan bill” — said it “was approved by a branch of parliament with a large majority, and the process has not yet been completed.”
“All concerns must be heard and all doubts dispelled, but there can be no foreign interference in the prerogatives of a sovereign parliament,” Zan tweeted on Tuesday following the Vatican’s protest.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has said he’ll take questions from parliament about the issue on Wednesday. The legislation is currently under consideration by…
