Italian lawmakers on Thursday prepared to vote on a controversial new law that would award bonus seats in Parliament to election winners, a move supporters say will help prevent governments from collapsing and detractors denounce as unconstitutional and antidemocratic.
Championed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has threatened to resign should it not pass, the new law would give a bonus to the winning party or coalition of an election: 70 seats in the lower house of Parliament and 35 in the Senate, provided the party or coalition reaches 42 percent in both houses. Italy has a 600-seat Parliament, with 400 seats in the lower house and 200 seats in the Senate.
Proponents of the law have nicknamed it “Stabilicum,” saying it will ensure a coalition’s ability to govern in a country with a long history of short-lived governments. Critics call it “Melonellum,” saying the law was tailor-made by the current government to bolster its chances at re-election next year. If the measure becomes law, opponents have vowed to petition Italy’s Constitutional Court for a review.
Italian governments have a history of instability; there have been 68 of them since Italy became a republic in 1946, with the shortest lasting a mere 22 days in 1954. Last month, Ms. Meloni, who was elected in September 2022, set a record for leading Italy’s longest-serving government. She is in the last year of a five-year mandate.
“This electoral law provides very strong stability,” which “builds credibility, allowing our businesses to operate with much greater peace of mind, and giving our foreign partners reassurances,” said Andrea Di Giuseppe, a member of Ms. Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party. The law was “very important,” he said in an interview.
The measure has been the topic of heated debate for months, prompting protests and petitions from some civil rights groups and constitutional experts as well as intense discussion in Parliament, even within Ms. Meloni’s center-right coalition.
“It doesn’t deliver what it promises,” said Gianluca Passarelli, a professor of political science at Sapienza University. He described it as a “Frankenstein law” with no comparable counterparts in any democracy.
Critics say that the bonus would allow the winning coalition to have outsized power that would let it make key decisions without negotiating with lawmakers, including appointing judges or the president, thus undermining the democratic process.
“The bonus modifies the balance of actual electoral votes,” said Professor Passarelli, warning that the law also introduced “institutional tension” among the country’s governing forces by shifting power to the executive and weakening Parliament.
Massimo Giannini, a left-leaning journalist and pundit, compared the law to one passed in 1923 that enabled Mussolini’s National Fascist party to take control of Parliament.
“One hundred and three years later, this pattern repeats itself. An electoral law with a massive majority bonus that shifts the balance of democracy,” Mr. Giannini said on his podcast.
Previous electoral laws — Italy has passed six since 1993 in its attempt to achieve political stability — have sought to introduce a majority bonus. But a 2005 electoral law that awarded extra seats was declared unconstitutional in 2013, when Italy’s Constitutional Court ruled that the bonus had not been contingent on reaching a minimum threshold.
Critics have raised other concerns as well, including a provision that coalitions name their candidate for prime minister ahead of the elections.
Mr. Di Giuseppe, the lawmaker, said such a measure “ensures clarity and transparency for our citizens.” But opponents of the law say that the choice of the prime minister is a prerogative of Italy’s president, who is elected by Parliament and has specific legislative and judicial powers.
They have also argued over a provision about voter preferences. Supporters of the law say it would reinstate voters’ ability to express preferences in each district for three candidates from a party list of six names; critics say that the lists have party-selected lead candidates, limiting voters’ ability to choose.
Furthermore, as most of the lead candidates are expected to be men, there are concerns that a gender imbalance in Parliament will grow.
“The vast majority of the Parliament is made up of men, and we know they will keep their power,” said Professor Passarelli.
Thursday’s vote will be a confidence vote, held by secret ballot. Ms. Meloni’s term ends next fall, but the collapse of the governing coalition could open the door to an earlier vote.
Salvatore Vassallo, the director of the Bologna-based Istituto Carlo Cattaneo, a research foundation, said it was not a given that the center-right coalition had the votes to reach the 42 percent threshold. He noted that Ms. Meloni now faces a challenge on her right from Roberto Vannacci, a retired general whose new party, National Future, has found growing appeal among hard-right voters.
“Both sides have a chance at winning,” Mr. Vassallo said, and the majority bonus was “in the interest” of any coalition that sought to govern without having to compromise when cobbling together a ruling majority.
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