On Friday, the Italian Council of Ministers approved a new bill to reform Italy’s electoral system, which would now allow the direct election of future Italian Prime Ministers during the parliamentary vote.
The present Italian electoral mechanism involves the election of two parliamentary houses, the Camera dei Deputati and the Senato della Repubblica. The Prime Minister originates from the party that secures a majority in both parliamentary houses but is not explicitly chosen by the voters. The Prime Minister, also recognised as the President of the Council of Ministers, subsequently appoints its Council of Ministers.
If the bill ultimately becomes law, the country’s electoral system will transform, incorporating a “mechanism of direct legitimation of the President of the Council of Ministers”. The proposed reforms propose an election approach where the electorate directly votes for the Prime Minister during parliamentary elections. If the Prime Minister loses parliamentary confidence under these reforms, he or she could only be succeeded by a majority parliamentarian committed to implementing the same Government programme. The bill also sets the tenure of a Prime Minister at five years.
The Council of Ministers has emphasised these revisions as enhancing “the stability of the Government and the political direction”. Through the constitutional amendments envisaged in this bill, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Minister for Institutional Reforms and Regulatory Simplification Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati aim to:
- Strengthen the stability of governments
- Implement medium and long-term political guidelines
- Consolidate the democratic principle
- Enhance the role of the electoral body in determining the political direction of the nation
- Promote cohesion amongst electoral alignments
- Avoid parliamentary transformationism and transfugism
As per standard procedures to amend Italy’s Constitution, a referendum is required. The referendum would ensure that the whole electorate gets a chance to vote, and a simple majority would be enough to pass the constitutional reform.
More information on this development can be found here.