Video: Fights in Italian Parliament

Wednesday night a fight broke among members of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Parliament. The fight started after Laura Boldrini MP, speaker of the House, decided to stop a filibuster by MPs from the opposition party M5S (Five Star Movement), the party founded by Italian comedian Beppe Grillo which last year won 25% of the votes and thus holds 109 seats in the Lower house of the Parliament. Parliament was asked to vote in order to convert into law a government decree: the result of the vote was granted, as government holds a large majority in the house, but the voting session was scheduled to end at midnight. After midnight the decree would have expired and its effects canceled.

Speaker Laura Boldrini decided to interrupt the filibuster by using the so called “guillotine”: a special power, never used before in the history of the Chamber – but conventional in the Senate – which allows the speaker to interrupt parliamentary discussions in order to speed up voting procedures. The vote saw the decree converted into law with 236 votes against 29.

After the vote was held, opposition MPs from M5S ran towards the speaker’s seat and tried to occupy the seats normally used by the prime minister and government ministers. Footage taken by other MPs shows what happened seconds after the vote:

Stefano Dambruoso MP (Scelta Civica, the party founded by former PM Mario Monti), also in charge of maintaining order during the works of the House, punched Loredana Lupo MP (M5S):

Subsequently M5S MPs left the house, headed towards a committee room and interrupted the works of the justice committee by occupying the room: