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Giorgia Meloni’s government has proposed constitutional changes to allow for the direct election of Italy’s prime minister, a move aimed at strengthening the premier’s role and ensuring that future coalitions last longer.
Italy has had 68 governments since it became a Republic in 1946 with cabinets lasting on average just over one year. Prime ministers are easily toppled in no-confidence votes, due to the country’s highly polarised and fragmented political landscape.
“We have done what we pledged to do, giving Italy the historic opportunity of a simple revolution,” Meloni said in a press conference, calling her proposal “the mother of all the reforms”.
According to the new rules proposed, the prime minister would be elected for five years at the same time as the parliamentary elections. The coalition that secures most votes will also be guaranteed 55 per cent of the seats in parliament.
In case of resignation or a no-confidence vote, the elected premier could be replaced only once, by a lawmaker from the same majority who would implement the same policy objectives. If that nominee fails to secure a majority, the parliament is dissolved and new elections are held.
These changes would rule out the appointment of so-called technocratic governments — such as the premiership of former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi and, before him, those led by Mario Monti and Lamberto Dini.
Meloni said the reform aimed to achieve “government stability” and ensure that Italians “choose who governs the nation”. This way, she argued, Italy would break the cycle of shortlived governments and put an end to “reversals, palace games, transformism, rainbow majorities and technical governments”.
Under current rules, Italy holds parliamentary elections that then lead to a prime minister being appointed by the president after talks with the political forces elected to the Parliament. The premier does not necessarily have to be an elected lawmaker. The president, who is elected by MPs in parliament, also has the power to dissolve the parliament and call early elections when a premier loses a vote of confidence.
Electing a premier by direct ballot is unusual in Europe, where voters can choose their nation’s president directly, like in France, but not the prime minister. Direct presidential elections were initially what Meloni’s rightwing coalition had campaigned on in the run-up to the 2022 elections. But they later changed tack and decided to focus on bolstering the role of the premier.
The debate on how to end political fragmentation and speed up the legislative process predates Meloni. In 2016 then prime minister Matteo Renzi attempted a constitutional reform which would have reduced the powers and size of the Senate, but it was rejected in a referendum which led to his resignation.
Meloni’s reform could be further modified in parliament before being voted on. It will require a two-third majority in both chambers — a tall order, as some leftwing parties have already pledged to oppose it because it weakens the role of the president and parliament. Renzi, however, has said his party, which is also in the opposition camp, could vote for the Meloni reform.
Meloni said that if the reform will lack wide consensus in parliament she will hold a referendum on the issue.
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