Premiership, what the reform approved in the Chamber provides: «It is very dangerous»

With the first yes received in the Senate, Giorgia Meloni brings home a fundamental step in the definitive approval of the law on the premiership. However, he could now return to the Chamber only in 2025, given that there are other reforms to be voted on. Also including the reform of magistrates’ careers. And while the Chamber is also moving towards the approval of differentiated autonomy, 180 constitutionalists sign an appeal to stand alongside the senator for life Liliana Segre, who is against the reform: «The creation of a hybrid system, neither parliamentary nor presidential, never experienced in other democracies, it would introduce irremediable contradictions into our Constitution. Even a limited minority could take control of all our institutions through a prize, without any more counterweights and controls.” But what does the new bill provide?

How the premiership works

The premiership involves first of all the direct election of the Prime Minister. His election will take place at the same time as that of the Chambers and he will remain in office for five years with a limit of two terms. Which can become three if in previous legislatures he held the position for a period of less than seven and a half years. The reform also includes the power to dismiss ministers, which always lies with the prime minister. The power to appoint senators for life, currently the prerogative of the Quirinale, was also repealed. But he retains the position for former presidents of the Republic. The reform also provides three different cases of solution in the event of a government crisis. In case of revocation of confidence in the Prime Minister, the Quirinale dissolves the Chambers and the vote returns. In the event of the Prime Minister’s resignation, he can propose to the President of the Republic the dissolution of the Chambers within seven days.

What does it predict

Finally, the prime minister, upon his own decision, can only be replaced once in the legislature by a majority parliamentarian. So as to avoid technical governments and reversals. The Head of State can dissolve the Chambers even in the blank semester, i.e. the period leading to the election of a new President of the Republic. Then the quorum is raised in the first six votes for the election of the President of the Republic: two thirds are needed, as in the first three. Finally, the government’s countersignature in a series of Quirinale documents is abolished. These include the appointment of the Prime Minister, the judges of the Constitutional Court, the granting of pardons and the commutation of sentences, the decree calling elections and referendums, messages to Parliament and the referral of laws to the Chambers.

Criticisms of the reform

Among the criticisms of the reform today Antonio Polito on Corriere della Sera he explains that there is a crucial one: the premiership establishes the direct election of the Prime Minister, but does not say how this will happen. So much so that there is a transitional rule that provides for entry into force only after the electoral law has been approved. Yet, Polito reasons, to ensure that the prime minister has a majority in both chambers it would be necessary to establish the methods in the Constitution. For example, the runoff, while the minimum threshold of votes for representation should be defined first. Furthermore, with the premiership, the autonomy and the reform of the careers of magistrates, there is a risk of three constitutional referendums in a single legislature. With the real risk of failure for all three.

The constitutionalist

Ugo De Siervo, president emeritus of the Constitutional Court, goes into more detail today in an interview with The print. And he talks about a very dangerous reform: «In the constitutional text that is being examined by the Senate, they make a very dangerous choice, that is, the contextuality of the election of the head of government with the selection of deputies and senators. Here, unifying these two different selections in a single moment means an institutional system in which there is only a majority, which expresses the head of government plus his parliamentarians, and a minority. Citizens can exercise their power of criticism and change only once every 5 years. Now, this contrasts with the rules of all contemporary democracies.”

The balance

According to De Siervo, in fact «all contemporary democracies can have more or less strong mechanisms for identifying the head of the executive power, but they have always and necessarily maintained a very strong balance between this choice and the choice of parliamentarians. To clarify: in France, Macron does not necessarily have a majority in Parliament. The same happens in the United States with Biden. Nobody, in presidential or semi-presidential systems, has what would be guaranteed to the Prime Minister of this hypothetical reform, that is, homogeneity between the Executive and Parliament”.

The separation between the two powers «would disappear because not only would there be voting on the same day, but because it is clear that the candidates at the head of the government would also make the electoral lists. Thus we would have a government that was born with a majority guaranteed a priori in the House and the Senate. This is not good. It is a very dangerous choice. In fact, no system like this exists in any democracy. And it is a very significant thing: it means that the other countries, on the basis of reflections and varied stories, have all excluded that Parliament can necessarily be homogeneous with the government”.

The president of the Republic

The other fundamental point according to the constitutionalist is the emptying of the powers of the Quirinale, that is «the formation of the government and the possible early dissolution of the Chambers. They remain on paper, but in practice the new hypothetical Constitutional Charter decides how and when what the President of the Republic decides freely and responsibly at the moment.”