Excused absences
The most complete data are those processed by Openpolis. Despite parliamentary work taking place from Tuesday to Thursday (with rare exceptions) and despite the loose rules, in the current legislature the average absence is 30.6% in Montecitorio and 21.6% in Palazzo Madama. There is the case of the Sicilian deputy Antonino Minardo (moved from Forza Italia, then Lega and now to the Mixed Group): in the Chamber he participated in 47 votes (0.63%). But being President of the Defense Commission, he is on mission most of the time, 7,419 times, which makes his presence percentage very high: 99.44%. Even the MP Giulio Tremonti (Brothers of Italy) he is very often on missions: 6,500 times. He has 266 votes in the chamber, equal to 3.54% of the total, but the percentage of presence is 90.12% justified by the fact that he is President of the Foreign Affairs Commission, member of the Finance Commission, and is part of the Italian Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. The senator Guido Castelli (Fdi) commissioner for the reconstruction of areas affected by the earthquake, has an attendance percentage of 14.64%, but in the end it was present for 86.69%. The point is: who verifies actual participation in the missions? Dal Poggetto says: «the margin of discretion is very wide and it is not possible to know whether in the end these are camouflaged or real missions». There are also those who don’t have any roles, like the senator Claudio Borghi (League): presence of 35.10%, however with a good number of leaves for which he is present for 87.57%. Then there are the party leaders: Elly Schlein (Pd) e Giuseppe Conte (M5S) recorded 24.2% and 26.74% of attendance respectively, while Matteo Renzi (Italia Viva) e Carlo Calenda (Stock) have 53.59% and 51.86%. Absences obviously justified.
