Italy – Meloni faces decisive vote on electoral reform

ROME, 30 September /ATSH-DPA/ – The Italian parliament today began final discussions on the reform of the electoral law proposed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a change that could give her right-wing coalition the chance to secure another parliamentary majority.

Under the draft law, the coalition that wins the parliamentary elections would benefit from a seat bonus, with the declared aim of creating more stable governments in Italy.

The decisive vote is expected to take place in the Chamber of Deputies in the coming days.

The Senate, the upper house of the Italian parliament, has already approved the proposal in mid-September.

Meloni has announced that she will tie the vote to a motion of confidence in her government.

If the government fails to secure the necessary support, the country could go to early elections.

The next parliamentary elections are scheduled for next year, but no exact date has yet been set.

Italy’s post-Second World War history has been marked by great political instability, with around 70 governments having taken office in Rome.

However, Meloni’s three-party coalition, which has been in power for almost four years, has already set the record for the longest-lived government in the country’s post-war history.

The Italian electoral law has been changed several times in recent decades, unlike the practice in many other European democracies.

The new reform is particularly controversial.

It provides for a considerable seat bonus for the coalition partners, if they take at least 42 percent of the vote in the parliamentary elections.

The left-wing opposition accuses Meloni of seeking, through this reform, to give her party, the “Brothers of Italy”, an unfair advantage in the elections.