A brawl broke out in Italy's Parliament when officials came to blows over a proposal to expand regional autonomy from the national government — sending an opposition lawmaker to the hospital for emergency treatment.
Five Star Movement party member Leonardo Donno, who opposes the plan, sparked the fight in the lower house by approaching regional foreign affairs minister Roberto Calderoni and trying to hand him an Italian flag.
A video recording showed two men rush over and grab Donno, prompting a huge fracas in which lawmakers pushed and punched each other in the Chamber of Deputies in Rome on Wednesday.
Donno told Italian news agency Adnkronos that "chaos ensued" after he got "got close" to Calderoni, according to the Washington Post.
"I didn't just get kicked several times, I also received a very strong blow to my sternum, and I collapsed because I could no longer breathe," he said.
Donno said he was treated by doctors at a local hospital.
The fight erupted one day before Italy hosted the annual Group of Seven summit meeting in the coastal Borgo Egnazia resort in Apulia, the region that comprises the heel of Italy's geographic "boot."
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told Italy's Sky TG24 TV news channel that he had "no words" to express his disappointment over the parliamentary violence, according to the Associated Press.
"We need to set another example, not punches to resolve political problems," Tajani said. "It's not braggadocio, it's not shouting; it's ideas that need to be explained well to persuade voters."
Calderoni, a firebrand member of the right-wing League party, drafted the proposal to expand autonomy in its regional northern strongholds of Veneto and Lombardy, AP said.
Five Italian regions now have autonomy that reduces the taxes they pay to the federal government, and critics contend that Calderoni's plan would further hurt the county's impoverished south.
