away the majority prize –

The Constitutional Affairs Commission of the Senate has approved the government’s amendment to article 3 of the constitutional text on the prime ministership, which intervenes on article 92 of the Constitution providing for the direct election of the Prime Minister: the amendment that received the green light introduces the limit of two mandates for the elected prime minister, the conferral of the possibility of recalling ministers to the Head of State upon proposal of the prime minister and the elimination of the threshold of 55% of the seats as a majority bonus. «An amendment that was renewed after listening to the opposition and the constitutionalists, and which affected various things – explains the Minister of Reforms, Elisabetta Casellati – We eliminated the 55% threshold as a majority bonus, contested because it was introduced in the constitutional law, and we report it in the electoral law. We have given the power to appoint and dismiss ministers to the Prime Minister, always through the President of the Republic, therefore we have increased the power of the Head of State who certainly did not have the power of dismissal. We have introduced the limit of mandates that did not exist, imposed on two with the exception of a third mandate if the previous two have not been completed. Furthermore, the construction of a different relationship between the elected prime minister and the second prime minister was requested and we have also implemented this in article 4″.

«On my part and on the part of the government – he adds – there was a desire to meet the needs of the opposition, now in the discussion of this text and for a year in listening to all the oppositions, the various constitutionalists, the trade unions and economic categories. We gave up the direct election of the President of the Republic, which was part of our program, because it was not appreciated by the opposition and we turned to the premiership to look for a point of failure. I hope that in the continuation of the work there will be awareness on the part of the opposition of a dialogue that I have always held and of a falling point that it is necessary to find when discussing an important law such as the constitutional law. To date I have not received any answers, I hope that these will come as soon as possible.” Then there is the issue of the electoral law, on which the majority agree to discuss after the approval at first reading of the reform of the premiership in both houses of Parliament: «This has already been discussed in the last week , on the need for an electoral law and it was also said that an electoral law cannot precede a constitutional reform, because it would cage the debate on the reform. It would be nonsense.” On the timing of the premiership, however, Casellati states: «I think that this text will finish its journey in the commission at least at the end of this month, then it will be able to go to the chamber: in any case, the timing is always determined by the parliamentary discussion, it is certainly not the government that impose them. We have always been broad in this respect too, then we will see how the debate goes.”

Peppe De Cristofaro, group leader of the Green and Left Alliance at Palazzo Madama, speaks instead of «a serious forcing that unbalances the powers of the Republic which will do a lot of damage to the democracy of our country. A mess of rules which, contrary to right-wing propaganda, will not give any power to the future prime minister because he is held hostage by the majority parties that support him. Weakening Parliament and emptying the role of the President of the Republic, guarantor of the institutions, means distorting the founding principles of our Constitutional Charter. Italy needs anything but an authoritarian twist, anything but a ‘boss’ Republic. An authoritarian regime without counterweights so dear to Italian sovereignists that would have no equal in the world. A very dangerous plan.”