The Senate rejected, by 68 votes to 99, the sub-amendment first-signed by Democratic Party member Dario Parrini to eliminate blocked front-runners and introduce preferential voting in the general elections . The government had deferred to the Senate on the proposed amendment to the majority amendment to the electoral law. After the vote, chants of "Shame!" were heard from the opposition benches.
The FdI had announced its vote against with a speech in the Chamber by group leader Lucio Malan : "We have always been in favor of preferences, but between an instrumental amendment from the opposition and maintaining the majority agreements, we have no doubts: we will keep our word and vote against this amendment."
"The Democratic Party," he added, "has voted for laws that didn't include preferences, except for the Italicum law, promoted by the Renzi government, which included the blocked top candidate—imagine that. But at the time, it was fine; now, it's not; it's unacceptable. So we understand the manipulation of this amendment. If you had wanted to approve preferences, there were several occasions in the Chamber, particularly when they were defeated by a single vote. At the end of that vote, we remember the opposition's celebrations."
He then concluded by recalling the opposition's jubilation when the center-right split and lost in the Chamber precisely over preferences: "You can't celebrate the rejection of preferences and then propose them. It's quite clear that the attempt is to split the majority. But between an instrumental amendment and maintaining the majority agreements, which have allowed for the reintroduction of preferences since '92, we have no doubts: we'll keep our word on preferences and vote against this amendment."
The opposition
The opposition attacks, highlighting Giorgia Meloni's contradictions and the split within the majority.
Matteo Renzi read in the Chamber a 2014 speech by the Prime Minister in favor of preferences, in which she stigmatized, among other things, the fear of those who do not support them for fear of subjecting themselves to the voters' verdict and added, in view of the upcoming elections:
