Presidentialism in Italy: what the Meloni reform provides for and when it can be approved

The presidentialism in Italy for Giorgia Meloni has always been”the mother of all reforms”. Now that the leader of the Brothers of Italy has become Prime Minister, the center-right would seem to be ready to accelerate to change the functions and methods of electing the President of the Republic.

“We would like to approve the reform in first reading in at least one of the two Chambers by the end of the year – said a The truth the Minister for Relations with Parliament Luca Ciriani -. This would already be quite a success. But beyond the question of timing, what matters most is also looking outside the center-right perimeter”.

For Ciriani a semi-presidentialism could be “the formula that best suits our country”, with the government that wants to understand “if there is a common ground to reason on; if the answer that comes to us is filibustering, then we will make our choices as promised to the voters”.

In fact, presidentialism is an old passion of Giorgia Meloni, so much so that the Prime Minister already in 2018 she was the first signatory to a text which however was rejected in Parliament following a vote against by the Democratic Party and the 5 Star Movement.

But now everything has changed, with Meloni who can count on a large majority who, perhaps even with the side of the third pole, have the numbers to approve a reform that provides for thedirect election of the President of the Republic.

Presidentialism according to Meloni in Italy

In Italy we’re talking about again presidentialism not only for the declarations of Minister Luca Ciriani, but also for the words spoken by Giorgia Meloni during the end-of-year press conference.

“I believe that we can only do good for Italy – explained Meloni – with a reform of its institutions that allows for stability and governments that are the result of clear popular indications”.

But what does the presidential reform by Giorgia Meloni who, after being included in the electoral program of the centre-right, could soon begin her parliamentary process?

Not many details were included in the electoral programme, but to try to understand what the connotations of the reform could be, we can take a look at the main innovations present in the 2018 law proposal presented by Meloni:

• direct election by universal suffrage of the President of the Republic;
• the President of the Republic presides over the Council of Ministers;
• remains in office for five years;
• can be re-elected only once;
• must be at least forty years old;
• can apply after having collected 200,000 signatures from as many citizens;
• can be nominated by parliamentary groups.

Being one constitutional reformpresidentialism will have to be approved with a two-thirds majority by the Chambers, or with an absolute majority but after a double vote in both the Chamber and the Senate.

If Meloni and the center-right were to be able to approve presidentialism, there would finally be the possibility that senators or citizens could request a confirmatory referendum as happened recently with the reduction in the number of parliamentarians.