Italy: Meloni's new voting rights clears final hurdle in parliament
After several confidence votes, the Chamber of Deputies passed the new electoral law, which grants the election winner a majority bonus.
Quick Look
- The Italian Parliament has approved Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's electoral law reform.
- The law provides for a majority bonus for election winners who receive 42 percent of the vote.
- The opposition criticizes the project as an instrument of power.
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Why It Matters
The reform provides for a majority bonus for election winners who receive 42 percent of the vote. The aim is to avoid frequent changes of government through more stable majority relationships.
Rome. In Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's plans for a controversial new electoral law have cleared the last parliamentary hurdle.
The Chamber of Deputies in Rome, in which her coalition of three right-wing and conservative parties has a majority, approved the new electoral law. 227 MPs voted in favor, 164 against. The Senate – the second chamber of Parliament – had already approved the project in mid-September.
In the previous days, Meloni's government had already passed three votes of confidence with a clear majority. The decisive final vote was now eagerly awaited. The right-wing politician had made the votes on this in the Chamber of Deputies a test for her government and explained that failure would have consequences.
The votes of confidence on Tuesday and Wednesday for the individual articles were carried out by name. The final vote was again secret. The opposition had hoped for dissenters from the coalition. In the event of failure, new elections were considered the most likely scenario.
With the reform, Meloni wants to ensure that the winner of a parliamentary election receives a majority bonus if he can get 42 percent of the vote. A new coalition would then get 70 additional seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 35 additional seats in the Senate. A narrow election victory could turn into a comfortable majority. The opposition criticizes the project as a targeted acquisition of advantages for Meloni's coalition.
The reason for the reform is that with a more stable majority there should no longer be as frequent changes of government. The electoral law is called “Stabilicum” or by some also “Melonellum” because – according to criticism – it is tailored to the head of government's retention of power.
Open Questions
- How will the reform affect future coalition formations?
