The Chamber of Deputies approved the electoral law reform by 227 votes to 164. The majority held to the secret ballot. This is the third parliamentary step following the amendments made by the Senate, which introduced preferences with blocked top candidates (after the amendment introducing them was rejected by the Chamber of Deputies in July) and increased the number of signatures required for parties not represented in Parliament to run in elections.
The protests
The opposition protested: "Fraudulent law," "No to deception," "With Meloni - healthcare + weapons" were the signs displayed after the vote.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, meanwhile, rejoiced: "And to those who hoped to see the center-right divided, today we respond with action: we are united, united, and determined to fulfill the commitments we made to the citizens. Let's keep going," she wrote on social media. "With the final approval of the new electoral law, when Italians go to the polls again, they will be able to choose everything: their party, their coalition, their platform, their prime ministerial candidate, and—once again—their own parliamentarian. The center-right is reintroducing preferential voting, which has been missing for over thirty years, giving citizens back the power to directly choose who represents them. Stable governments and greater participation mean greater continuity, more responsibility, and a greater ability to provide concrete answers to Italians."
The majority prize
The majority bonus translates into 70 additional seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 35 in the Senate, up to a maximum of 220 deputies and 113 senators. If this threshold is not reached, seats will be assigned proportionally to the votes received. The candidate for prime minister is indicated in the party's platforms.
Preferences
The measure returned to the Chamber of Deputies after incisive interventions on four of the nine articles of the bill proposed by the Senate. Specifically, after an attempt at first reading, the measure to return to a preference system was approved. This will allow up to three candidates to be nominated from a list of six, arranged on a ballot paper with a total of seven names, with a blocked top candidate (gender rotation is permitted among the preferences, but not among the top candidates). A list, compiled by the coalition forces at the constituency level, will also be provided for the candidates to be sent to Parliament in the event of the majority bonus.
The foreign constituencies
The foreign constituencies have also been redrawn, going from four to two for the Chamber (Europe and the Americas-Asia-Oceania-Antarctica) and from four to one for the Senate.
Palazzo Madama also intervened on the signature collection mechanism for submitting lists, establishing, among other things, that those not present in Parliament by December 31, 2025, must collect at least 6,000 signatures, out of 1,500, in each constituency (over 450,000 in total, it has been estimated, considering both Chambers).
A further amendment extended the right to vote to family caregivers of non-residents. This change was met with abstention from all opposition voters.
(Unioneonline/D)