Direct election of the prime minister, stop to reversals and technical governments: the Council of Ministers approves the constitutional reform
Giorgia Meloni: «The mother of all reforms». Calenda says no: at the moment there is no two-thirds majority in Parliament, so we will have to go through a referendum, as in 2016
Direct election of the Prime Minister, stop to reversals and technical governments and stop to the appointment of senators for life chosen by the Quirinale .
The Council of Ministers has approved the constitutional reform , a bill by Minister Maria Elisabetta Casellati which changes the fundamental Charter and is destined to be discussed for a long time. Also because the approval in the CDM is only the first of many steps necessary for the reform to come into force.
The bill has 5 articles and introduces "the direct election of the President of the Council of Ministers". But the most controversial step is the so-called anti-reversal rule which modifies article 94 of the Constitution, affecting the powers of the Collegium. If the prime minister elected by the people is no-confidence, the President of the Republic "can confer the task of forming the government on the resigning Prime Minister or on another parliamentarian elected in connection with the elected president" . The prime minister in charge must present himself with the same program and obtain the vote of confidence from the parliamentarians who supported the majority that emerged from the polls. Opposition votes can be added to, but not replaced, those of the majority. With such a rule, essentially, the Draghi government would never have been born. And not even those of Giuseppe Cont e.
The Head of State retains the power to appoint ministers "on the proposal of the Prime Minister". The prime minister, elected by direct universal suffrage, remains in office for 5 years.
Only the emeritus presidents of the Republic will become senators for life , with no direct appointment by the Quirinale "for very high merits in the social, scientific, artistic and literary fields" .
«In the last 75 years of Republican history we have had 68 governments with an average lifespan of a year and a half. This is the mother of all the reforms that can be done in Italy because if we take a step back and look at the last 20 years we have had 12 Prime Ministers", said Giorgia Meloni in the press conference at Palazzo Chigi.
The reform, he continues, «introduces the direct election of the Prime Minister and guarantees two objectives that we have been committed to achieving from the beginning: the right of citizens to decide by whom they will be governed, putting an end to reversals, palace games and governments technicians or governments passed over the heads of citizens ".
«The roles of the President of the Republic and of Parliament remain unchanged», he explains, and 4 articles of the Constitution are modified: « The Prime Minister elected by universal suffrage at the same time as the Chambers. The responsibility for guaranteeing a majority is deferred to the electoral law. There is also an anti-reversal rule: the elected president can only be replaced in one case, and only by a parliamentarian. It's the end of the upheavals ."
With the Pd and M5s saying no, the spotlight is on Renzi and Calenda. Matteo Renzi on the "mayor of Italy" fully agrees but expresses doubts about the rule regarding senators for life: «But is it really the priority today to send Liliana Segre home to keep Claudio Lotito? Let's focus on the direct election of the prime minister ."
Carlo Calenda, on the other hand, announces his no: «Reform that we could call the Italianate. It is not a chancellorship (which we would have approved), it is not a premiership, it is not presidentialism or semi-presidentialism. It is our invention never before tested in the world . Parliament doesn't work, federalism doesn't work, public administration doesn't work. Meloni found the solution: take care of something else. Which represents the history of this government well."
And without the approval of the two centrist groups, the reform will not obtain a two-thirds majority in Parliament and will therefore have to go through a referendum . Seven years ago Matteo Renzi, who approved a constitutional reform with only the votes of the majority, did not go well: the citizens soundly rejected it in the referendum.
(Unioneonline/L)
