Her proposal would award parliamentary seat bonus to coalitions winning more than 40% of the vote.

On Tuesday, far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will submit the “Stabilicum,” an electoral reform bill, to the Chamber of Deputies. The proposal seeks to replace the current electoral law, which enabled her to come to power in 2022.

RELATED:

Italy Transformed Diego Rivera’s Painting and Mexican Muralism

Italy is entering the final stretch of the current legislative term and is heading toward new general elections in 2027. Meloni has proposed changing the current electoral law, stirring political debate just before the summer recess.

The coordinator of her party, Brothers of Italy, Giovanni Donzelli, said the objective of the new law is to “avoid the deadlock” that emerged after previous elections.

The intention of modifying electoral laws to retain power is not new in Italy, where governing parties have changed those laws several times, including in 2005, 2015 and 2017.

The main innovation of Meloni’s proposal is the introduction of a parliamentary seat bonus for the coalition or list that wins more than 40% of the vote, with the aim of strengthening its parliamentary majority.

One of the proposal’s most controversial features concerns the ballots. The right is negotiating an amendment that would introduce a mixed-list system, under which the names of party leaders would be protected while the remaining candidates would be subject to voter preference.

The decision to reform the electoral law comes in the final year of the legislative term and will be one of the main political issues this fall.

The main opposition force, the Democratic Party (PD), along with other center-left parties, accuses Meloni of wanting to change “the rules of the game quickly in her favor out of fear of losing.”

In addition, the legislative process is expected to expose conflicting interests among the parties in Meloni’s coalition: Antonio Tajani’s conservative Forza Italia and Matteo Salvini’s far-right League, the latter having been significantly weakened in all opinion polls.

The most recent polls forecast a close race between Meloni, Salvini and Tajani’s current right-wing coalition and the progressive alliance made up of the Democratic Party, the Five Star Movement, and other smaller left-wing parties.

Also entering the political landscape is the National Future party, led by far-right Gen. Roberto Vannacci, who has launched an independent bid and is forcing the right to consider whether to include him in its coalition.

In any case, the debate over Italy’s electoral law is attracting significant attention not only because of the general elections but also because President Sergio Mattarella’s second term will end in 2029, and Parliament will have to choose his successor. In a recent interview, Meloni argued for overcoming “the great taboo” of the country’s politics: that Italy should have a right-wing head of state.

teleSUR/ JF

Source: EFE

IN THIS ARTICLE