Italian gov't wins confidence vote on labor law in lower chamber

The Italian government of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Wednesday won a confidence vote in the lower chamber on a labor decree which is going through parliamentary procedure to be converted into law.

There were 344 yes votes and 184 no votes.

The center-left Democratic Party, of which Renzi is the secretary, and its junior partner, the New Center-Right (NCD) supported the government.

The Five-Star Movement of former comedian Beppe Grillo and the center-right Forza Italia of three-time premier Silvio Berlusconi, which are both in the opposition, voted against the decree.

Since he was sworn in at the helm of Italy in February, Renzi has frequently stressed that the fight against unemployment which has reached 13 percent in the crisis-hit country was a priority of his policies to revive the economy.

In March his coalition government adopted a labor decree aimed at turning around unemployment rates through simplifying hiring procedures and easing bureaucracy.

Decrees in Italy are issued in special cases by the government and must be converted into a law within 60 days of their publication.

But changes from the original version of the decree to the current one, which lowered the limit of temporary contracts for new employees, aroused controversy among Renzi's allies.

Thus the government decided to put the decree to a confidence vote to speed the parliamentary procedure for its conversion into law, which was considered by political observers a risky move as the coalition would have likely collapsed if it had failed to win confidence.

The NCD, which had threatened to vote against the decree because it did not agree with the changes, decided to back the government but has pledged to change again the decree in the Senate before conversion into law.