The Minister for Reforms Elisabetta Casellati is working to finalize a bill to change the Constitution and review the rules regarding the powers of the prime minister and the formation of the government.
It is the indiscretion published by Fatto, which also provides the details of the draft drawn up so far by the former president of the Senate.
Here are the highlights:
- Premier directly elected for a maximum of five years and no more than two consecutive terms, providing for the mandatory figure of the vice president of the Council
- The person who obtains the highest number of votes and at least 40 percent of the votes validly cast becomes head of government, otherwise a runoff is held between the two candidates with the highest number of votes
- As regards the new powers of the prime minister, however, the prime minister appoints and dismisses the deputy prime minister and the ministers (powers which today belong instead to the president of the republic)
According to Il Fatto, it is a "first draft ", a "slender text of four articles which modifies articles 88, 92 and 94 of the current Constitution, relating to the powers of Prime Minister and of the Republic".
Article 2 concerns the methods of election and the powers of the premier and reads: "The candidacy for the office of Prime Minister takes place through connection with one or more lists of candidates for the election of the Chambers, according to the methods established by law", we read in the proposal which refers to the drafting of an electoral law which favors «the formation of a majority in both Chambers linked to the Prime Minister.
Article 1 of the bill "concentrates instead - reads the newspaper - on the power to dissolve the Chambers which today, according to article 88, belongs to the head of state: with the new reform, however, the dissolution of the Chambers it could come after a no-confidence motion approved even by just one House and the resignation of the prime minister". The president of the republic can only, after having heard the presidents of the chambers, «postpone the early dissolution for the duration of a semester».
Again according to the draft anticipated by Il Fatto, "article 3 of the bill, on the other hand, introduces mechanisms of constructive no-confidence in the prime minister by integrating article 94 of the Charter: the no-confidence motion can be presented only one year after the formation of the government and, only if approved by an absolute majority, the prime minister is forced to resign ».
The constitutional bill, if approved, will instead enter into force starting from the next legislature "and in any case not before 60 days have elapsed from the aforementioned date of entry into force".
(Unioneonline/lf)
