Senate of the Republic Senato della Repubblica
File:Seal Italian Senate.png
Leadership
President of the Senate	Renato Schifani, PdL since April 29, 2008
Structure
Members	315 6 lifetime senators
Political groups	PdL 126 PD 104 LN 22 UDC-Aut. 15 TP 14 NC 13 IdV 12 Mixed gr. 14
Elections
Last election	April 13–14, 2008
Meeting place
File:Aula senato.jpg
Palazzo Madama, Rome
Website
http://www.senato.it

Italian Republic

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The Senate of the Republic (Italian: Senato della Repubblica) is a house of the bicameral Italian Parliament. It was established in its current form on 8 May 1948, but previously existed during the Kingdom of Italy as Senato del Regno (Senate of the Kingdom), itself a continuation of the Senato Subalpino (Subalpine Senate) of Sardinia-Piedmont established on 8 May 1848. It sits in Palazzo Madama in Rome.

Composition[link]

The Senate consists of 315 elected members, and as of 2011^[update] seven senators for life. The elected senators must be over 40 years of age, are elected by an electorate composed of Italian citizens aged 25 or over and, save for six senators who represent Italians living outside Italy, are elected on a regional basis. The senators for life are composed of former Presidents of the Italian Republic, who hold office ex officio and those who are appointed by the president for "for outstanding merits in the social, scientific, artistic or literary field".

The six current life senators are:

• Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (of law as former President of the Republic) and in order of appointment:
• Giulio Andreotti (former Prime Minister),
• Rita Levi Montalcini (Nobel Prize winner for Medicine 1986),
• Emilio Colombo (former Prime Minister),
• Sergio Pininfarina (Designer) and
• Mario Monti (Economist and current Prime Minister).

The current Italian President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, was a life senator before his election in 2006; his membership of the Senate is suspended whilst in Presidential office.

The Italian Senate is unusual among European upper houses in that it has almost the same power as its lower counterpart: other than the budget, any law can be initiated in either house, and must be approved in the same form by both houses; additionally the Government must have the consent of both to remain in office (a position which is known as "perfect bicameralism").

The Senate may be dissolved before the expiration of its normal term by the President of the Republic, when no government can obtain a majority.

Membership[link]

The current membership of the Italian Senate, following the latest political elections of 13 April and 14 April 2008:

Latest elections results[link]

Parliamentary groups[link]

Parliamentary groups in the Italian Senate, at the inauguration and after the latest changes.^[6][7]

Presidents[link]

Under the current Constitution, the Senate must hold its first sitting no later than 20 days after a general election. That session, presided by the oldest senator, proceeds to elect the President of the Senate for the following parliamentary period. On the first two attempts at voting, an absolute majority of all senators is needed; if a third round is needed, a candidate can be elected by an absolute majority of the senators present and voting. If this third round fails to produce a winner, a final ballot is held between the two senators with the highest votes in the previous ballot. In the case of a tie, the elder senator is deemed the winner.

In addition to overseeing the business of the chamber, chairing and regulating debates, deciding whether motions and bills are admissible, representing the Senate, etc., the President of the Senate stands in for the President of the Republic when the president is unable to perform the duties of the office. The current President of the Senate (since 29 April 2008) is Renato Schifani.

Presidency office[link]

Past Presidents (recent years)[link]

See List of Presidents of the Italian Senate for the full list.

Palazzo Madama[link]

Palazzo Madama, Rome

Since 1871, the Senate has met in Palazzo Madama in Rome, an old patrician palace completed in 1505 for the Medici family. The palace takes its name from Madama Margherita of Austria, daughter of Charles V and wife of Alessandro de' Medici. After the extinction of the Medici, the palace was handed over to the House of Lorraine. and, later, it was sold to Papal Government.

Later, in 1755, Pope Benedict XIV (whose coat of arms still dominates the main entrance) ordered major restructuring, entrusting the work to Luigi Hostini. In the following years there were installed the court offices and police headquarters. In 1849, Pius IX moved the Ministries of Finances and of the Public Debt here, as well as the Papal Post Offices. After the conquest of Rome by the newly formed Kingdom of Italy, the palace was chosen to became the seat of the Senato del Regno (Senate of the Kingdom).

Cicero Denounces Catiline

Palazzo Madama and the adjacent buildings underwent further restructuring and adaptation in the first decades of the twentieth century. A radical transformation which involved, among other things, the modernization of the hemicycle, the full remaking of the prospectus on Via San Salvatore and Via Dogana Vecchia, and the establishment of a connection with the adjacent Palazzo Carpegna. The latter, owned by the Senate, was entirely rebuilt in an advanced position compared to its original position. The small church of San Salvatore in Thermis, dating to the sixth century, which stood in the street to the left of the palace, was first closed, expropriated and later razed for security reasons.

The current façade was built in the mid 1650s by both Cigoli and Paolo Maruccelli. The latter added the ornate cornice and whimsical decorative urns on the roof. Among the rooms one of the most significant (and perhaps the most impressive from the political point of view) is the "Sala Maccari," which takes its name from Cesare Maccari, the artist who decorated it in 1880 and created the frescoes, among which stands out as one that depicts Cicero makes his indictment of Catiline, who listens, isolated from their seats.

The chamber where the Senate met for the first time on 27 November 1871 was designed by Luigi Gabet. A plaque on the wall behind the speaker's chair commemorates the king's address to Parliament when first convened in the new seat of government:

L'ITALIA È RESTITVITA A SE STESSA E A
ROMA • QVI E' DOVE NOI RICONOSCIAMO LA
PATRIA DEI NOSTRI PENSIERI; OGNI COSA
CI PARLA DI GRANDEZZA MA NEL TEMPO
STESSO OGNI COSA CI RICORDA I NOSTRI
DOVERI •
VITTORIO EMANVELE II
27 NOVEMBRE MDCCCLXXI
"Italy is restored to herself and to Rome... Here, where we recognise the fatherland of our thoughts, all things speak to us of greatness; but at the same time all things remind us of our duties..." - Victor Emmanuel II, 27 November 1871

Above this has been placed a plaque bearing the inscription:

IL 2 GIUGNO 1946
PER SUFFRAGIO DI POPOLO
A PRESIDIO DI PUBBLICHE LIBERTÀ
E A CERTEZZA DI PROGRESSO CIVILE
FU PROCLAMATA
LA REPUBBLICA ITALIANA
On 2 June 1946/ by popular suffrage/ in defence of public liberty/ and a certainty of civic progress/ was proclaimed/ the Italian Republic

To the viewers left stand the flags of the Italian Republic (with a ribbon embroidered with the words SENATO DELLA REPUBBLICA) and the European Union.

See also[link]

• Parliament of Italy
• Italian Chamber of Deputies
• Senate
• Roman Senate
• Senato Italiano (TV channel)

References[link]

External links[link]

• (Italian) Official website
• (English) Official website

Nino Randazzo (born 1932), Italian Australian politician, was born in the Aeolian Islands and emigrated to Australia in 1952. As a young man in Melbourne he was a member of the anti-communist Democratic Labor Party (DLP), and was a parliamentary candidate for the DLP in 1964. He was later editor of the Melbourne Italian-language daily newspaper Il Globo.

Randazzo was elected to the Italian Senate in the 2006 Italian general elections, as an overseas candidate for the centre-left coalition L'Unione (The Union).^[1] He was on the same ticket as Marco Fedi, who was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies.

In December 2007, investigators into the case of alleged attempts by Silvio Berlusconi to influence RAI stumbled upon evidence that Berlusconi had tried to corrupt Randazzo to cease his support for Prodi's government.^[2]

References[link]

This article about an Australian politician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Renato Schifani
President of the Senate
Incumbent
Assumed office 29 April 2008
Preceded by	Franco Marini
Personal details
Born	(1950-05-11) 11 May 1950 (age 62) Palermo, Italy
Political party	People of Freedom (2008–present)
Other political affiliations	Forza Italia (1996–2008)

Renato Maria Giuseppe Schifani (born 11 May 1950^[1]) is an Italian politician and a prominent member of the centre-right People of Freedom. Since 29 April 2008 he has been President of the Italian Senate.^[2][3] Schifani was born in Palermo.^[1]

Biography[link]

Berlusconi's chief whip[link]

Schifani used to be a lawyer specialised in trials at the Supreme Court of Cassation (Italian: Corte Suprema di Cassazione), the major court of last resort. He specialized in real estate regulations and became active in the debt collecting business. Filippo Mancuso, the former minister of Justice born in Palermo, termed Schifani “the prince of debt collectors” (“il principe del recupero crediti”).^[4] Prior to joining Forza Italia in 1995, he was an active member of Christian Democracy. Elected in 1996 in the Altofonte-Corleone district in Sicily, Schifani served as Silvio Berlusconi's chief whip in the Italian Senate.

In 2002, Schifani was a protagonist in the attempt to secure the embedding of the provisional Article 41-bis prison regime – used against people imprisoned for particular crimes such as Mafia involvement – as a definitive measure in Italian law.^[3]

[edit] 2004 Immunity Law (lodo Schifani)

Schifani and Antonio Maccanico, senator of the centre left L’Ulivo (Olive Tree) political coalition, gave their name to a bill aimed at granting immunity to the top five representatives of the State, including Silvio Berlusconi (although the other four were not facing trial). After extensive revisions of the text of the law by the Senate, Maccanico withdraw his name from the project. The lodo Schifani decree was then approved in June 2003 by the Italian parliament guaranteeing immunity to Silvio Berlusconi. The law was subsequently declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court on January 13, 2004.^[3][5]

Similar provisions were included in the lodo Alfano Act (2008), granting immunity to the top four representatives of the State, including Berlusconi and the same Schifani as Speaker of the Senate. After being granted immunity Schifani has sued his critics Travaglio and Tabucchi for slander, allegedly claiming 1,3 million from Tabucchi as the author declared in the transmission Annozero, feb 5th 2009. The lodo Alfano was declared anti-constitutional in October 2009 as well.

President of the Senate[link]

Schifani was elected as President of the Senate on April 29, 2008, following the general election held earlier in the month. He received 178 out of 319 votes.^[2]

Alleged Mafia connections[link]

In 1979, Renato Schifani founded and became managing director of the firm Siculabrokers.^[6] Enrico La Loggia (who would later become minister of Regional Affairs), Benny D'Agostino, Giuseppe Lombardo and Nino Mandalà were among its shareholders.^{[7][8][9][10]}

Benny D’Agostino is an entrepreneur convicted for Mafia association, Mandalà was convicted for Mafia association and was indicated by the Court as the Mafia boss of Villabate,^[11][12] Lombardo was chairman and member of the board of Satris, a credit recovery agency whose shareholders were Nino and Ignazio Salvo, well known businessmen and Mafiosi of the Salemi “family,” arrested by prosecutor Giovanni Falcone in 1984.^[12][13]

According to the pentito (Mafia turncoat) Francesco Campanella, Antonio Mandalà and La Loggia in the 1990s agreed on the master plan for the shopping centre they wanted to develop in the town of Villabate, which aroused the interests of politicians and the Mafia.^[14] Schifani, La Loggia and the civil engineer Guzzaro -– the consultant who advised the town -– would share the consulting fees for drawing up the master plan. The master plan of the town of Villabate was designed under specific instruction of Antonino and Nicola Mandalà (Antonino’s son who was responsible for the logistics to keep the fugitive Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano at large^[15]). They conspired with the local Mafia families and politicians to skim from the public contracts.^[14]

In 1992, Schifani along with Antonio Mangano and Antonino Garofalo founded GMS, another credit recovery agency. Schifani's partner Garofalo was charged with usury and extortion in 1997. However, Schifani was not mentioned in the police investigation.^[6] In both cases Schifani has never been investigated for any Mafia-related offence, much less tried.

Media row with Travaglio[link]

On May 10, 2008, the journalist Marco Travaglio interviewed on the RAI current affairs talk show television programme Che tempo che fa, talked about the Italian media. He mentioned past relationships between Schifani and men who have subsequently been condemned for Mafia association as an example of a relevant fact ignored by almost all Italian newspapers which published a biography of Schifani as the new president of Senate.^[16][17][18]

The statement of Travaglio resulted in fierce and almost universally negative reactions including from the centre left, except for Antonio Di Pietro who said that Travaglio was ‘merely doing his job’. Some called for chief executives at RAI to be dismissed. The popular political commentator Beppe Grillo supported Travaglio, while Schifani announced he would go to Court and blame Travaglio for slander.^[19] Schifani said Travaglio's accusation was based on "inconsistent or manipulated facts, not even worthy of generating suspicions," adding that "someone wants to undermine the dialogue between the government and the opposition."^[18]

References[link]

• (Italian) Gomez, Peter & Lirio Abbate (2007). I complici. Tutti gli uomini di Bernardo Provenzano da Corleone al Parlamento, Fazi Editore, ISBN 978-88-8112-786-3
• (Italian) Gomez, Peter & Marco Travaglio (2008). Se li conosci li eviti. Raccomandati, riciclati, condannati, imputati, ignoranti, voltagabbana, fannulloni del nuovo Parlamento, Milan: Chiarelettere

Renato Schifani v t e Presidents of Italian Senate Kingdom of Italy Coller · Manno · Alfieri di Sostegno · Settimo · Sclopis · Casati · Fardella di Torrearsa · Ambrois · Pasolini · Tecchio · Durando · Farini · Saracco · Canonico · Manfredi · Bonasi · Tittoni · Federzoni · Suardo · Thaon di Revel · Tomasi Della Torretta Italian Republic Bonomi · De Nicola · Paratore · Gasparotto · Ruini · Merzagora · Zelioli-Lanzini · Fanfani · Spagnolli · Fanfani · Morlino · Colombo · Cossiga · Fanfani · Malagodi · Spadolini · Scognamiglio Pasini · Mancino · Pera · Marini · Schifani v t e Great Offices of the Italian Republic President Giorgio Napolitano President of the Senate Renato Schifani President of the Chamber of Deputies Gianfranco Fini Prime Minister Mario Monti

Vince Megna

Vince Megna (born August 24, 1944, Iron Mountain, Michigan) is a Wisconsin attorney "known as the leading lemon law attorney in the United States."^[1] Lemon Law is the body of law that offers protection to owners of motor vehicles with recurring mechanical or other problems that are not resolved within a reasonable time by the dealer or manufacturer.

Legal career[link]

Referred to by The Washington Post as the "King of Lemon Laws" and "Arguably America's foremost lemon law lawyer",^[2] Megna is a graduate of Marquette University Law School, 1973. He has successfully represented consumers in more than 1,500 Lemon Law cases,^[3] won some of the biggest jury verdicts and lemon law settlements in the nation and has argued before both the Wisconsin Supreme Court and Court of Appeals. In 2003, Lawyers Weekly USA selected Megna one of the ten "Lawyers of the Year"^[4] for his work in consumer advocacy. In 2006, Megna prevailed in one of the largest Lemon Law verdicts in the nation, a $385,000 judgment against DaimlerChrysler Corporation over a defective Dodge Viper.^[5] In 2010, in a case that received world wide media coverage, Megna obtained a $482,000 judgment against Mercedes-Benz for a $56,000 E class that wouldn't start.^[6] Vince Megna has sued General Motors some 650 times without a loss.^[7]

In 2003, Megna released Bring on Goliath: Lemon Law Justice in America (Ken Press, Tucson, AZ). Ed Henry, retired Automotive Editor for Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, critiqued the work as, exposing "a greedy grab for profits at the expense of consumers like none I have read in more than 20 years of automotive reporting".^[8] Warren Brown of The Washington Post called Bring on Goliath, "simply the best book I have ever read on consumer justice in the matter of gaining compensation for cars that just don't work." ^[9] Academy Award winner and author Michael Moore gave Bring on Goliath a "thumbs up."^[10] The book inspired efforts in Hawaii to change its lemon law (HI HB 1753) into a more consumer friendly law identical to that of Wisconsin. The bill was strenuously opposed by the Hawaii Automobile Dealers Association.

In 2006, the satirical and irreverent rant on society, religion, truth and the legal profession was published in Vince Megna's second book Lap Dancers Don’t Take Checks: The Truth about Law, Lawyers and other Trivialities (Ken Press). Johnny Dark, the Oldest CBS Page from the David Letterman Show, wrote the Forward.

Music career[link]

Prior to becoming a lawyer, Megna sustained a modest musical career playing guitar with well known performers including Teddy Randazzo ("Goin' Out Of My Head" and “Hurt So Bad”), Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart and jazz guitar great Herb Ellis. He also performed in bands with Moby Grape founding member Peter Lewis, American icon blues bassist Larry Taylor and John Walker of the The Walker Brothers. His work in music continued after joining the bar, including recordings with his own band, Vince and the Attorneys. In 2000, Megna released Truth is Irrelevant, a 10 song satirical, alternative rock CD produced by Genesis and Phil Collins’ guitarist, Daryl Stuermer.^[11]

Books by Vince Megna[link]

• Bring on Goliath: Lemon Law Justice in America (Ken Press, 2003, ISBN 978-1-928771-16-6)
• Lap Dancers Don't Take Checks: The Truth about Law, Lawyers and other Trivialities (Ken Press, 2006, ISBN 978-1-928771-44-9)

Discography[link]

• 1962 Meet The Bonnevilles – The Bonnevilles (Drum Boy Records)
• 1965 "Poinciana" b/w "Red Vent" – Herb Ellis and Vince Megna (EMP Records)
• 1979 "The Loneliest Night" b/w "Sometimes Love" – Bobby Hart (Warner/Curb Records)
• 1980 The First Bobby Hart Solo Album – Bobby Hart (WEA Records)
• 1980 "Lovers for the Night" b/w "You Get Smoke in Your Eyes" – Bobby Hart (Ariola Records)
• 1982 "IRSBS" b/w "Truth is Irrelevant in a Criminal Case" – The Attorneys (Verdict Records)
• 1984 Moby Grape ’84 (co-writer, "Silver Wheels") – Moby Grape (San Francisco Sound Records)
• 1990 Vince & The Attorneys – Vince & The Attorneys (Verdict Records)
• 1995 Hung Jury – Vince & The Attorneys (Verdict Records)
• 2000 Truth is Irrelevant – Vince & The Attorneys (Urban Island Music)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Vince Megna's Website