The Italian Senate approved the controversial Meloni reforms

According to the report of the international group Tasnim news agency quoting “Spiegel” weekly newspaper, the Italian Senate approved the controversial constitutional amendments of the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government.

On Tuesday, 109 representatives approved these amendments in The smaller of the two houses of parliament in Rome voted, while 77 MPs voted against it. Therefore, these reforms have cleared the first hurdle for implementation. The essence of these reforms is that the prime minister in Italy is directly elected. They protested against these constitutional amendments. About 2,000 people marched in Rome. Among them, they fear that the reforms will weaken the parliament and limit the independence of the judiciary. “To defend national unity” was one of the slogans of the opponents of Meloni’s government. Left-Green coalition VS, Nicola Fratoianni and Angelo Bonelli also participated in the demonstration. Shlain said: We will not allow the government to change the constitution.

The amendment of the Italian constitution specifies that in the future the prime minister will be appointed by the president to form the government. cannot, but is directly elected by the people for a period of five years. In addition, a 55% majority bonus is awarded to the party with the most votes. This prize guarantees the winner of the election an automatic majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate, even if they do not receive an absolute majority of votes.

This constitutional amendment bill which has been approved by the Senate, is now sent to the House of Representatives for voting. The bill received 109 votes on Tuesday, short of the two-thirds majority needed to avoid a referendum. It is also not expected to receive this approval in the House of Representatives. So this was only the first step to the final acceptance. In Italy, any constitutional change requires a two-thirds majority in both houses. If this does not happen, it must be voted on in a referendum. Most recently, then-Prime Minister Matteo Renzi lost a constitutional referendum in 2016 and was forced to resign.

Italy’s right-wing government wants These reforms are used to combat the chronic instability of Italian governments. Since the end of World War II, Italy has had a total of approximately 70 governments. Many people agree that this political system needs to be reformed. However, Meloni’s reforms have been heavily criticized by the opposition.

They fear that Meloni’s reforms could deprive the parliament and the president of important powers. In this way, the role of the president is reduced with its key balancing function. Opposition leader Eli Schlein said the reforms would change the power structure in Italy. Power will be concentrated in one person. Opponents also announced that they want to take action against this project.

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