On Friday the constitutional reform for the direct election of the prime minister will be on the table of the Council of Ministers, after the green light from the majority leaders gathered at Palazzo Chigi with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
At that point the path to Parliament will open for the constitutional bill, with its four passages between the Chamber and the Senate.
The summit at Palazzo Chigi "cleared" a text that was agreed upon by the four parties that support the executive , represented at the table by Matteo Salvini, Antonio Tajani and Maurizio Lupi. We have therefore overcome the tensions which in recent months have put the premiership in opposition - considered a flagship law of the Brothers of Italy - with the autonomy reform pushed by the League and which could have its first approval from the Senate by the end of the year.
In terms of content, it is a streamlined reform, contained in five articles which, in the intentions of the majority, should come into force from the next legislature.
We start with the direct election of the Prime Minister, and no longer the President of the Republic as indicated in the electoral program from a year ago. Concretely, the reform aims to revolutionize the election of the head of government (chosen directly by the citizens in a single round, for 5 years) and to strengthen his role, while trying at the same time - as underlined by several members of the majority - not to alter too much the rest of the constitutional architecture.
A balance that is not easy to guarantee, especially in order not to weaken too much the prerogatives of the head of state, the institutional figure who in recent years has held a substitute role in the face of political crises. But precisely because of the delicacy of the reform and its indirect involvement, the Quirinale does not intervene. According to the reform, once the prime minister's power of appointment has been "lost" (as provided for today by article 92 of the Constitution), the President of the Republic retains the possibility of assigning him the role and appointing ministers, always on the indication of the head of government .
Apart from the direct election of the prime minister, among the main innovations of the reform stands out the farewell to senators for life appointed for "high merits in the social, scientific, artistic and literary fields". Thus Liliana Segre's appointment would risk being the last appointment as senator for life by the Quirinale. And the head of state would lose one of his prerogatives, sometimes criticized for the weight that senators for life have in parliamentary dynamics.
(Unioneonline/D)
