Italy Council of Ministers approves bill to directly elect future prime ministers – JURIST

The Italian Council of Ministers approved a bill on Friday to reform the Italian electoral system to elect the Prime Minister of Italy in a ballot alongside the election of Parliament.

Under current law, Italian people vote to elect the two houses making up Parliament, the Camera dei Deputati and the Senato della Repubblica. The Prime Minister comes from the party that wins a majority in both houses but is not directly chosen by voters. The Prime Minister, also called President of the Council of Ministers, then selects its Council of Ministers.

If this reform becomes law, this electoral system will change to introduce a “mechanism of direct legitimation of the President of Council of Ministers.” The Prime Minister would, therefore, be directly voted for by the electorate. This vote would happen alongside the election for the chambers of Parliament. Under these reforms, if the Prime Minister loses the confidence of the Parliament, the Prime Minister “can only be replaced by a parliamentarian from the majority and in order to continue implementing the same Government programme.” Additionally, the reforms set the time a Prime Minister stays in office as five years.

The Council of Ministers stated that these reforms favour “the stability of the Government and the political direction.” In changing the Constitution through this bill, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Minister for Institutional Reforms and Regulatory Simplification Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati aim to achieve the following:

strengthen[] the stability of governments, allow[] the implementation of medium-long term political guidelines; consolidate the democratic principle, enhanc[e] the role of the electoral body in determining the political direction of the nation; promote the cohesion of electoral alignments; avoid transfugism and parliamentary transformationism.

To change the Constitution, a referendum must be held in Italy. The whole electorate would vote, and a simple majority could pass the constitutional reform.