ROME, March 11 (UPI) -- Italian lawmakers Tuesday voted down amendments that would have required quotas for female members of a Parliament.
The measures were shot down as lawmakers appeared prepared to pass Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's election reform package, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.
Renzi had said he was open to discussing the forced feminization of Parliament when his bill reached the Senate.
"If there are the conditions to discuss sexual equality in the Senate, we will reopen the debate," Renzi, the leader of the center-left Democratic Party, said.
The election law reform bill is the result of a deal Renzi made with former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the leader of the opposition center-right Forza Italia party. The question of the so-called pink quotas was a potential problem as Berlusconi's party said it would be unconstitutional.
