Italy’s top story on Thursday:

Italy’s Senate on Wednesday approved a key article of a constitutional reform bill that would introduce direct elections of a powerful prime minister.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has called her ‘premierato’ policy – which would award the prime minister’s party or coalition an automatic majority in both chambers – “the mother of all reforms”, arguing is necessary to reintroduce political stability to the country.

A constitutional reform in Italy must either be approved by a two-thirds majority in both houses of parliament, or put to a public referendum. Meloni’s ruling coalition lacks such a majority in either house, meaning the Senate’s approval can only move the bill one step closer to a referendum.

Opposition members on Monday walked out of the Senate chamber in protest, news agency Ansa reported, holding up signs saying they had been “gagged” by parliamentary speaking time limits, and highlighting that the bill fails to outline how the reform would work in practice.

Lombardy under ‘orange’ weather alert for storms

Large areas of Lombardy were under an ‘orange’ weather warning for continuing heavy rainfall on Thursday, after cities including Milan, Brescia, Varese and Monza were pummelled by severe storms on Wednesday.

An orange warning is the second-highest alert level under the Italian government’s tiered weather alert system. It indicates a moderate threat to public safety from small landslides and sinkholes, damage to buildings, and possible flooding of underpasses and basements, as well as roads and railway lines.

Much of Lombardy was hit by heavy rain on Wednesday, with firefighters fielding some 120 calls over the day, most of them related to draining flooded areas and assisting motorists, newspaper Quotidiano Nazionale reported.

Weather conditions across northern Italy were expected to improve starting from Thursday evening, according to Wednesday’s forecasts.

Pope Francis under fire for using homophobic slur – again

Pope Francis came under fire on Wednesday following reports that he used a homophobic slur during a closed-door meeting with Roman priests on Tuesday, just two weeks after using the same term while speaking with Italian bishops. 

The pope said “there is an air of frociaggine” in the Vatican, adding that young men with homosexual tendencies are “good lads” but it is better that they not be allowed into seminaries, according to sources interviewed by Ansa news agency.

The term frociaggine stems from frocio – a highly offensive Italian slur for a gay man generally translated into English as ‘faggot’.

An official note circulated by the Vatican’s press office at the end of Tuesday’s meeting said the pope was reiterating “the need to welcome (gay people) into the Church,” while being “prudential” about the admission of gay men into seminaries.

One in four shops in parts of Italy closed in last decade

Over 25 percent of all shops in some areas of Italy were shut down in the last 11 years, Carlo Sangalli, president of the business confederation Confcommercio, said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the federation’s general assembly in Rome, Sangalli highlighted the risk of “commercial desertification”, which he described as “a wound to the idea of citizenship,” financial publication QuiFinanza reported.

Over the past decade, 160 thousand youth-run businesses in Italy have disappeared, he said.

To save the country’s retail sector, Italy’s government should introduce tax cuts for small businesses and support EU taxation for e-commerce platforms, Sangalli concluded.