Work on the reform of the electoral law has resumed in the Senate. Article 1 of the reform was approved with 95 votes in favor and 54 against. Among the changes introduced, compared to the text voted in Montecitorio, the introduction of the preference mechanism with blocked leaders, the cancellation of the threshold for contributing to the prize and the increase in the number of subscriptions for parties not present in Parliament.
The Chamber instead rejected an amendment by the Democratic Party to the electoral law, signed by Andrea Giorgis, which proposed that the signatures necessary to run in the elections could be collected "also in digital mode using an electronic document, signed with a qualified electronic signature".
A change to the signature rule? "It's not in the air at the moment", said the Minister of Reforms, Elisabetta Casellati, to reporters who asked her about the rule in Transatlantico in the Senate about the law which quadrupled the signatures that those who are not already in Parliament must collect to stand for elections. Casellati recalled that the amendment in question was approved and that no changes to the text in the Chamber are foreseen.
The proposal, he explained, "has the objective of ensuring that there is no excessive fragmentation, anti "Pippo lists", as was also said in the Chamber and this responds to a "need for seriousness in the organization of electoral lists".
"I really don't think there will be any upheavals in the Chamber," Casellati said again. The final vote is scheduled for tomorrow morning, the text, modified at Palazzo Madama, will then return to Montecitorio
Protest in the Senate 'against attack on democracy'
The protest against the new rules on the collection of signatures provided for by the electoral law arrives a few steps away from the Senate. The leader of the M5s Giuseppe Conte also arrives in Piazza Vidoni, at the demonstration promoted by Alessandro Onorato's Progetto Civico Italia against the increase in subscriptions required for new formations to stand in the elections. And chants of "Mattarella, Mattarella" rise from the square, with the demonstrators calling into question the President of the Republic.
"The rules of the electoral law must be the same for everyone, this caste saving is not possible: those who are in Parliament remain there and those who are outside cannot even participate", attacks Onorato. The focus is on the obligation, for forces not already represented, to collect around 400 thousand signatures: "Why should we collect 400 thousand? Fratelli d'Italia in 2013 collected just 40 thousand". A threshold which, according to the founder of Progetto Civico, constitutes an "unsustainable" barrier.
However, Onorato excludes parliamentary operations constructed only to circumvent the obligation: "We don't want to carry out tactical operations. If someone comes to us, they come because they share the political project". And he adds: "It is already madness that in Italy the electoral law is changed every time there is a government. If it is even established who can participate and who cannot", the "sense of democracy" is called into question. Conte joins the protest.
"I am here and on behalf of the Movement I join this demonstration because we are talking about an anti-democratic, illiberal and unconstitutional rule", says the five-star leader. "The barrier they erected overnight to prevent new political groups from entering Parliament is downright obscene." With this rule "only the caste of the political class that already sits in Parliament is defended", the former prime minister continues, promising, "every possible and imaginable battle".
Other items approved
The green light is also given to Article 5 of the reform which provides for exemption from the collection of signatures for those who have a group in at least one of the two Chambers on 31 December 2025. The oppositions' proposals for modification have been rejected.
Article 6 approved, rejecting all the amendments presented. The article provides, among other things, the reduction from 4 to 2 (Europe and non-EU) the geographical distributions of the Foreign constituency for the Chamber and from 4 to a single area for the Senate.
Ok also to article 7, which instead concerns the voting methodology abroad and provides, among other things, that the signatures to be collected (between 500 and one thousand residents in the relevant distribution as provided for by the current law) are not required "for political parties or groups constituted as a parliamentary group, even in just one of the two Chambers, in the legislature in progress at the time of convening the rallies or which in the last election presented candidatures with their own signature and obtained at least one seat in one of the two Chambers".
Green light to extend the out-of-office vote to caregivers
The Senate Chamber gave the green light, with 95 votes in favour, 2 against and 46 abstentions, to an amendment to the electoral law, reformulated by the government and first signed by FdI senator Domenica Spinelli, which extends the possibility of out-of-office voting to caregivers, already provided for in the reform for care reasons.
The text allows this possibility for family caregivers who, for a period of at least three months in which the elections take place, provide care and assistance to a "person undergoing healthcare, therapy or medical or rehabilitation treatment at a facility located in a municipality belonging to a region other than that of the municipality in which they are registered".
The same applies to "parents or cohabiting family members of a minor who, for the same period, accompany or provide care and assistance activities in his favor because he is undergoing healthcare, therapy or medical treatment at a healthcare facility located in a municipality belonging to a different region" from the one in which he is a voter. The opposition abstained.
Bonelli: 'We will oppose an unconstitutional law'
"Giorgia Meloni keeps Parliament busy on the electoral law while in Italy there are enormous problems: expensive energy, low salaries and public health in difficulty. It is a clash of power, or rather Meloni's attempt to exercise dominion over power. We will oppose it because, we reiterate, this law is unconstitutional". Angelo Bonelli, AVS deputy and co-spokesperson for Green Europe, declared this, responding to journalists near the Senate.
"Meloni has forgotten where she comes from: she is no longer the underdog, today she is the point of reference of the banking and financial salons and certainly not of the people. She is not interested in the quality of our democracy and wants to change the structure of the State in a presidentialist way. We oppose it because Italy is a democracy". "When the measure returns to the Chamber, this bold and arrogant majority will place its trust and prevent any discussion. This is Giorgia Meloni's conception of the State and democracy: to command and protect only its interests".
Borghi (IV): 'It limits the autonomy of the head of state, it is against the Constitution'
"My colleague Malan explicitly said that with this electoral law the Prime Minister will be chosen. Article 92 of the Constitution states: 'the President of the Republic appoints the Prime Minister'. This law therefore limits the autonomy and responsibility of the Head of State. It is a fifth problem of a constitutional nature, after the four identified last week: the double blocked list, the size of the majority bonus in relation to the threshold, the failure to respect the Senate elected on a regional basis and the votes of the province of Trento which does not count for the bonus majority". Senator Enrico Borghi, vice president of Italia Viva, says this during the debate on the electoral law.
"If the majority had wanted to obtain this result, i.e. to directly elect the prime minister, they would have had to follow the main path, i.e. modify the Constitution. The premiership was set aside due to internal disagreements on the right, and now they are surreptitiously trying to introduce it with an ordinary law. I therefore propose again - adds Borghi - a request that I consider indispensable: the majority must assume the responsibility of waiting for the ruling of the Constitutional Court before the law is made operational".
