Premiership and Autonomy, what are they: election of the Prime Minister, constitutional process and powers of the Regions

Parliament examined within a few hours, between Tuesday and Wednesday, two reforms strongly desired by the government which could change the future of Italy.

This is an amendment to the Constitution and a law that implements an already approved one, which the majority of Giorgia Meloni he carried on with two different bills (dll).

The first predicts the direct election of the Prime Minister and a series of changes to the constitutional powers that have hit the news these days as “Premier-winning”.

The second instead provides the extension of the powers and prerogatives of some Regions, a package of decisions known as a bill “Autonomy”.

The issues of the reform of the Premiership in Italy

The text approved by the Italian Senate on Tuesday (109 votes in favour, 77 against and one abstention) gives voters the possibility of directly electing the prime minister.

The main opposition parties reacted with a protest demonstration in the center of Romebut for the reform to become a reality at the polls a series of issues need to be resolved.

The process of constitutional reforms in Italy: all the steps

• The reform it now passes to the Chamber of Deputiesbut since it is a constitutional reform, according to article 138 of the Constitution the text must be approved twice by both housesat least three months later.
• Approval must take place there second time with an absolute majority of deputies or senators (50 percent plus one). There may still be a passage though: the popular referendum.
• 500 thousand citizens, five regional councils or a fifth of the members of a Chamber can request the referendum, but not if the favorable votes in the second reading exceeded two thirds of the assembly.

For the Premiership, the reform of the electoral law is needed

• The direct election of the head of government requires the modification of the electoral law, which in Italy is traditionally the case rock on which majorities crash and even the current one is divided on this matter.
• A new law should establish the manner of this electionstarting from vote threshold necessary to become prime minister and by the system, whether single shift or double shift with the ballot.
• However, the bill introduces a award on a national basis which ensures a majority of seats in each of the Chambers for the lists and candidates linked to the Prime Minister.

The anti-tipping rule and the role of the opposition

• The reform in the recently approved version provides for the elected prime minister to present himself to the Chambers for the trust in his government team: in case he doesn’t receive ita second attempt is expected with another list of ministers or another majority.
• In case of resignation of the Prime Ministerhe can ask the President of the Republic to go to the early vote, or a new mandate for himself or for another parliamentarian elected in his coalition.
• In the next steps, amendments could be presented in parliamentary commissions and in the Chamber recognize a status for the figure of the opposition leader.

The major powers of the head of government

• The reform is criticized for the excess of powers accumulated by the head of government: among other things it provides for the possibility of revoking upon your proposal, and not just to namethe ministers by the head of state (to whom it comes the appointment of senators for life was removed): currently i ministers of a government must be disqualified by Parliament.
• If there is a political crisis, the Prime Minister would also have the right to request and obtain it from the President of the Republic early dissolution of the Chambers (Today prerogative of the head of state).
• The duration of the mandate is 5 years, but it is renewable (even a third time if the previous mandates did not total 7 years and six months)

The votes of Italians living abroad

• The reform ofarticle 48 of the Constitution launched in 2001, it allows Italian citizens to vote in a foreign constituency which is currently represented by 8 deputies and 4 senatorsa modest contribution.
• But there are Italians abroad 5 million and in the event of a direct election of the prime minister they could have a decisive weight.

The long process of the Autonomies: Italian federalism

The bill on the “differentiated” autonomy of the regions with ordinary statute has been definitively approved on Wednesday thanks to the 172 yes votes received in the Chamber (against 98 deputies and one abstention) after the green light from the Senate.

This is a law that implements the constitutional reform of thearticle 116 of the Constitution passed in 2001.

What are the subjects of differentiated autonomy for the Regions

• On the basis of the reform, the Regions with ordinary statute can request greater autonomy in 23 sectors including: environment, foreign trade, culture, energy, education, health, sport and transport.
• In obtaining greater decision-making autonomy, a given Region will have to guarantee essential levels of performance (Lep) to ensure a minimum public service throughout the national territory, which still need to be determined as well as the budget to finance them.

How long will it take to achieve regional differentiated autonomy

• Once the minimum services have been defined and financed, within two years of the entry into force of the law, the State and Regions will have five months to find an agreement that will last ten years and it’s renewable (or terminable with one year’s notice)
• One is also planned safeguard clause which allows the government to replace the powers of regions, provinces, municipalities and metropolitan cities in the event that local authorities are found to be in default on Lep or on community and international commitments.

The comment of the European Commission

The EU Commission also intervened on autonomy in its ‘Country Report 2024’ published on Wednesday. The report still talks about a bill, because it was drawn up before the law was approved in the House, but highlights some risks and concerns about the increase in economic and political inequalities at a regional level.

“The bill also establishes the requirement to guarantee territorial cohesion in both the economic and social spheres. However, if on the one hand the bill assigns specific prerogatives to the government in the negotiation process, on the other it does not provide a common framework for assessing regional requests for additional skills“, the report reads.

“Since the LEPs guarantee only minimum levels of services and do not cover all policy areas, there is still the risk of increasing regional inequalities. Devolving additional powers to the Regions on a differentiated basis would also increase institutional complexity, with the risk of increased costs for both the public and private sectors,” the report concludes.