Italian Prime Minister Meloni’s government seeks to reform the Italian political system by introducing two major reforms, including the direct election of the prime minister and the devolution of power to Italy’s regional authorities.
“Enough divisions!“, shout Elly Schlein, the leader of Italy’s Democratic Party, to the crowd as she took the stage Tuesday in central Rome. The protest was organized by opposition parties against Meloni’s ambitious new government reforms. What began as a single protest, however, could define a new political strategy against the Meloni government.
Meloni’s right-wing coalition has pushed two key reforms that, if approved, will represent a ambitious revision of the Italian constitution. One of them is the direct election of the Italian prime minister – a project that has only been tested in Israel – which won the approval of the Senate on Tuesday.
The other is the granting of more political power to the Italian regions, the consolidation of which led to a fight in the Italian parliament.
In a rare show of unity, Italy’s main opposition parties joined forces against the reforms.Giuseppe Conteleader of 5 Star Movementdescribed the unified protest as “the best response” to the ruling majority and attacked both proposals.
Devolution of power raises questions
The reform that would return powers to regional authorities became law this Wednesday. It was one of the party’s emblematic proposals. Ligacon Matteo Salvini trying to regain support in some of the Northern strongholds.
The law not only sparked a fight in parliament but attracted broader criticism, all of which suggested it would deepen the divide between the country’s rich north and poorer south.
However, those who staged a demonstration on Tuesday think that the ““Mother of all reforms”, as Meloni called it, is more worrying than the rest. The direct election of a prime minister has already obtained the approval of the Senate and has begun a uncertain path towards its conversion into law.
The Meloni government defends the constitutional changes proposed as a means to achieve government stability, strengthen the role of the prime minister and allow Italians to have more say in who governs their country.
Several deputies doubt that the reform will produce the desired results, and others warn about the risk of a paper reduction both of the parliament Italian as from president Italian.
The direct election of a prime minister is unusual: only in Israel did they try, unsuccessfully, to introduce such a system in the 1990s.
Changing Italy’s constitution is a lengthy process in which both houses of parliament must approve the change twice, requiring a two-thirds majority for the final two votes.
Additional sources • Enrique Barrueco (Voice-over)
