Female Names Bill, “Proposal Not Shared”. Lega to Retract Immediately –

“The League specifies that the bill proposed by Senator Manfredi Potenti is a completely personal initiative. The party leaders, starting with the group leader in the Senate Massimiliano Romeo, do not agree with what is reported in the Potenti bill, the text of which does not reflect in any way the line of the League, which has already requested its immediate withdrawal”. Sources from the League express themselves in this way regarding the bill centered on the ban, in public documents, for “the feminine gender for neologisms applied to institutional titles of the State, military ranks, professional titles, honorifics, and positions identified by acts having the force of law”.

There would no longer be “sindaca” or “avvocata” or “rettrice” therefore, declining the feminine in documents to “preserve the integrity of the Italian language and in particular, avoid the improper modification of public titles” adapting “their definition to the different sensibilities of the time”. The penalty provided for was a fine between one thousand and five thousand euros. On the merits, art. 2 of the text provided that “in any act or document issued by public bodies or other bodies financed with public funds or in any case intended for public utility, the feminine gender is prohibited for neologisms applied to institutional titles of the State, military ranks, professional titles, honorifics, and positions identified by acts having the force of law”. And the subsequent art. 3 placed the “prohibition of discretionary recourse to the feminine or overextended or to any linguistic experimentation”, recalling that “the use of the double form or the universal masculine is permitted, to be understood in a neutral sense and without any sexist connotation”.

In the final article 4 (Sanctions) it was stated that «the violation of the obligations set forth in this law entails the application of an administrative pecuniary sanction consisting of the payment of a sum from 1,000 to 5,000 euros». In the introduction, the Tuscan senator recalled how the University of Trento introduced the use of the so-called «overextended feminine» for positions and gender references, or «that the feminine terms used (…) refer to all people», as stated in a university document, cited in the text of the law. «With the consequence – the member of the Northern League underlined – that «rettrice» was also used for the position of rector held by a man». But the Carroccio backtracked.