Rome, 18 June. (askanews) – The first green light has just arrived, but the “mother of all reforms” is already ready to be modified. There are at least a couple of paradoxes in the green light that the Senate gave today to the Italian-style premiership by Giorgia Meloni. The first is that, despite six months of discussion between the commission and the chamber and the long internal negotiations within the majority to find a consensus, everyone takes it for granted that changes will be necessary in the passage to the Chamber. The second is that, precisely on the day in which the opposition takes to the streets in dissent, the Brothers of Italy seep through a desire to consider corrections that can be read as an opening at least by some of the minority parties. In all of this, there are the uncertainties about the timing. There are many issues to be resolved regarding the timing, so much so that in the next few days the dossier will be addressed directly by the Prime Minister.
One of the critical points that will most likely be addressed in the second parliamentary passage is that of the consensus of Italians abroad. These are millions of votes which, as such, in percentage terms can even be decisive for the direct election of the prime minister. At the same time, however, their representation is fixed, i.e. – after the cut in parliamentarians – 8 deputies and 4 senators. Then there is a question regarding the way in which the anti-tipping rule was written. Despite a drafting operation carried out during the examination in the Senate chamber, in fact, it maintains interpretative risks which were also raised by a majority senator such as Marcello Pera. It is not a question of changing the mechanism established for crisis cases, the result of a very delicate point of balance with the League, but since when you put your hand to the Constitution “even a comma counts”, the issue may not be merely lexical.
But the real political point could be that of an opening towards the recognition of minorities, for example through the inclusion of an ad hoc statute or the figure of the leader of the opposition. Once again, it was Marcello Pera who presented an amendment to this effect in the commission. In the end he decided to withdraw it and turn it into an agenda for the room. It is therefore not excluded that we start again from there to try to reach out to the opposition parties, at least to the centrists of Italia viva and Action who, for example, today did not join the streets with Pd, Avs, M5s and Più Europa. The president of the League group, Massimiliano Romeo, says this almost explicitly.
“Much – he explains – will depend on the availability of the Brothers of Italy” to be able to “bring improvements and remove some strings from the opposition’s bow in view of the referendum”. A prominent member of the Melonians also makes another argument. “We always say that this reform is not for us, it makes sense to think about when we will no longer be in government”.
Any changes inevitably lead to an increase in time. But it is not the only unknown that the mother of all reforms will have to deal with. In fact, the government sent another constitutional reform to the Chamber last Thursday, the Nordio bill which also contains the separation of careers so dear to Antonio Tajani’s party. The presidency of Montecitorio will have to decide whether to assign it to the first commission or jointly with the Justice commission. In any case, there is a risk of gridlock for those who sit on the parliamentary body chaired by Nazario Pagano of Forza Italia. For this reason, in the next few days Giorgia Meloni will have to decide whether the two reforms will have to travel in parallel or whether one of the two will take precedence and which one. The decision will also depend on another question: when will the possible referendum need to be held and, given that these are two constitutional reforms, could it be more useful for them to be celebrated together or rather at different times? Then there is another unknown that weighs on the timing, namely that of the new electoral law without which the constitutional reform is in fact not applicable. In the majority the views are not univocal and the League’s aversion to the run-off could be a significant stumbling block.
For now, the Prime Minister is celebrating the first yes: “A first step forward to strengthen democracy, give stability to our institutions, put an end to palace games and give citizens back the right to choose who to govern them by.”
