Italy – Meloni faces decisive vote on electoral reform

ROME, Oct 8 /ATSH-ANSA/ – The government of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni faces a final and highly important vote today on a contentious electoral reform that could have significant consequences for her political future.

In recent days, her government has secured a majority in three confidence votes in the Chamber of Deputies. Now the final vote on the entire reform is expected, which will also be the last vote it must pass in Parliament.

The Senate, the second chamber of the Italian Parliament, approved the bill in mid-September.

Meloni, who is on the right of politics, has turned this reform into a test of the support her government enjoys.

She has hinted that if the reform is not approved, there could be early elections.

General elections in Italy are scheduled to be held as normal next year.

The left-wing opposition accuses Meloni of trying to create an advantage for herself and her far-right party, “Brothers of Italy”.

Meloni has been in power for almost four years, longer than any other Italian prime minister.

Under the proposed system, the party that wins at least 42% of the vote would benefit from a majority bonus.

In that case, the new governing coalition would receive 70 additional seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 35 additional seats in the Senate.

This would give the winning party a functional majority in Parliament, even if it had won less than 50% of the citizens’ votes.

The reasoning behind this reform is that, if more stable parliamentary majorities are created, changes of government will no longer happen as often as they have in the past.