Giorgia Meloni has set out to put an end once and for all to the chronic instability of Italian governments. The Italian Prime Minister announced this Friday the approval of a constitutional reform project to introduce the direct election of the head of the Italian Executive by universal suffrage, with a vote to be carried out at the same time as the election of representatives in the Chambers.
It is a form of election, baptized as 'premierato', which would consist of the prime minister being elected directly with a vote of the citizens so that the governments can last five years, the entire legislature, but preserving the balance of power with the President of the Republic, who would continue to be head of State. “Our objective is to guarantee that whoever is elected by the people can govern during a legislature,” Meloni assured in a press conference, adding that it is the only way that the winner at the polls can enjoy “an entire legislature in the horizon and carry out your project and guarantee stability".
This Friday's announcement is just the first step in a long road. Now the proposal will be sent to the Chambers, where a broad debate will take place, so it is possible that the text will reasonably change. Like any change to the Constitution in Italy, the new system requires a two-thirds majority in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, a majority that the current right-wing Italian government does not enjoy. If it is not approved in Parliament, the reform can be ratified through a referendum, which is why Meloni has said that the word “will pass to the Italians.”
Meloni wants to address one of the recurring problems that hinder the development of long-term policies in this country, that is, the very low life expectancy of Italian governments. Italy, since 1946, has had 68 governments, with an average duration of only fourteen months. “Either Italian politicians are worse than the Germans or the French, which I don't believe, or the system is wrong,” the premier considered. There are many who in the past have tried to address, without success, this system introduced to prevent another dictator like Benito Mussolini from coming to power. The last one to try was former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who lost the 2016 constitutional referendum and ended up resigning.
For this reason, the Italian Prime Minister has considered this change “the mother of all reforms.” Under her intentions, the coalition that supports the winning prime ministerial candidate will receive at least 55% of the seats, to ensure that the head of the Executive obtains a comfortable majority to govern. The Italian Government is finalizing a new electoral law to adapt it to this system, which will once again have to go through the Italian Chambers. In the event that a prime minister resigns or does not survive a motion of censure, a parliamentarian from the government majority could take her place, something that could only be done once in the entire legislature.
If this reform is approved, which changes four articles of the Constitution, Italy will no longer be able to be led by technocratic prime ministers, as happened when the former president of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi was called to lead a technical government in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, in which 2021; or in the previous case of Mario Monti, appointed in 2011 after the fall of Silvio Berlusconi during the financial crisis. Nor could the recent experience of Giuseppe Conte, an unknown lawyer who became prime minister overnight without standing in an election, be repeated as an external figure to mediate between the League and the 5 Star Movement in 2018. Later, Conte repeated as head of a new executive formed between the grillini and the center-left. "This will end the technocratic or rainbow governments," Meloni promised, referring to the alliances that have not been closed before the election.
The opposition is very skeptical of Meloni's plans. All parties outside the government majority, except Matteo Renzi's Italia Viva, have already shown their displeasure. The leader of the Democratic Party, Elly Schlein, for example, has warned that the so-called 'premierate' is "dangerous" because it limits the power of the parliamentary chambers. In any case, the discussion has only just begun. With the 'premierate' Meloni has already ruled out other options that were on the table, such as presidentialism, with the election by direct universal suffrage of the President of the Republic who would also act as prime minister; or imitate the French system with semi-presidentialism so that the Executive power is shared between the President of the Republic and a Prime Minister, the former elected directly by the citizens and the latter based on an electoral result.
