N. League proposes law to allow Italy euro poll

Italy's populist Northern League, campaigning to pull the country out of the euro, stepped up its efforts yesterday, saying that it would propose a new law to allow a referendum on the currency.

The League, a junior partner in Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's four-party government, called earlier this month for Italy to drop the "failed" euro currency which it blames for the country's economic woes.

The campaign has been ridiculed in other euro zone countries and dismissed by opposition parties as populist electioneering, though Mr Berlusconi has not criticised the League's initiative.

Welfare Minister Roberto Maroni, a senior League figure, said in a newspaper interview yesterday that the party would hold a referendum among activists and then propose a law to change existing legislation and allow Italians to vote on the issue.

Italy's Constitution does not allow referendums on matters governed by international treaties.

"We will propose a referendum for activists asking whether they want to stay in the euro, whether they would prefer a return to the lira or a system with both currencies," Mr Maroni told the party's La Padania newspaper.

"(Then there would be) a popular proposal for a constitutional law to allow a referendum on what type of Europe is possible and on the future of the euro."

With no other Italian parites having backed the League's campaign, it seems highly unlikely that its law proposal would get the backing of Parliament, a problem which Mr Maroni did not address in the interview.

Mr Maroni, who first rattled markets with news of the anti-euro campaign earlier this month, dismissed accusations the party was seeking publicity ahead of an election next year.

"I am comforted by the fact that after a while, our arguments will be the arguments of many others," he said.

"In Rome, people tell me: Maroni, if you give us the lira we will vote for you. And then there are the German, French voices that want a return to their national currency." Mr Maroni said the proposals would be formally launched at the League's traditional annual rally in its northern base of Pontida tomorrow.