February 21
19:24
2016
Italian Premier Matteo Renzi on Sunday warned he could call a high-stakes confidence vote in his government in a bid to unlock a parliamentary deadlock over gay civil unions. "We are at a crossroads," Renzi told a national assembly of his centre-left Democratic Party (PD). In an unexpected direct intervention in a debate he has largely stayed out of, Renzi said he regarded the legislation to give gay couples legal recognition and protection for the first time as important as his other reforms of the labour market and the parliamentary decision-making process.