In Italy, two chambers of the parliament have to approve CETA: the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. In 2017, ratification started in the Senate’s foreign affairs committee but it was halted. Since then, no new attempts were made to start the ratification process and recent governmental declarations suggest that CETA will not be presented to parliament anytime soon.
At the moment, there is not a clear majority against CETA in either chamber of the parliament and the new Italian government position on CETA is not known. There is however an intergroup of parliamentarians from both chambers opposing the agreement. The group represents all parties except the far right party Fratelli and members of the group sit in key parliamentary committees.
In Italy, opposition to CETA is focused on food and farming issues (geographical indicators, pesticides, glyphosate) as well as, but to a lesser extent, industrial concerns.
Many civil society groups are opposed to CETA such as trade unions (CGIL, the major trade union confederation), consumer groups, environmental organisations, etc. and Coldiretti, the largest agricultural federation in Italy.