ROME -- Italy’s right-wing League party has protested against a new bill proposed by one of their own members, which would introduce a fine for those who choose to use the feminine form of public titles.  

  The new bill was proposed by Senator Manfredi Potenti, a member of the League party, which the league party has referred to as a “wholly personal” decision.

   “The party leadership, starting with the head of the senate, Massimiliano Romeo, do not agree with the contents of Potenti’s bill, the text of which does not in any way reflect the line of the League,” the party said to Italian news agency ANSA, clarifying its stance almost 24 hours after the law was proposed. 

   The new legislation would prohibit in public acts “the feminine gender for neologisms used in institutional titles of the state, military ranks, professional titles, honours, and to the positions with the force of the law.” 

  In a draft of the bill, it reads that “the law presented intends to preserve the integrity of the Italian language and, in particular, to avoid the modification of public titles, such as ‘mayor’, ‘prefect’, ‘commissioner’, and ‘lawyer’ from the symbolic attempts to adapt their definitions to the sensitivity of time.” 

  It would not however enforce a measly fine, “violations of the obligations set out in the law involves the application of an administrative pecuniary sanction consisting of a payment of sum between 1,000 and 5,000 euros.”

  “The League has forced the Senator of the Carroccio to withdraw his bill,” Valeria Valenete, a member of the Democratic Party wrote in a note, celebrating the League’s protest, “we are obviously happy about it, but to everyone I say this: let’s not underestimate the problem.” 

  “This was a serious matter, not a ridiculous or anti-historical initiative. To think that the feminine conjugation of institutional or professional names corrupt the Italian language and for this to also involve steep fines, reveals a very precise thought: namely that women in public life are an ornament to be erased and that the system, masculine and chauvinist, is the point of reference for everyone, the neutrality of male subjectivity which includes everything.” 

  “This right wing believes in the patriarchal model of society and continuously shows it: on abortion, on women’s employment, on family. Let us not lower our guard.”

lw