Premier Matteo Renzi sealed a
deal overnight with junior partners in his ruling coalition on
the main elements of the government's reform programme at a
meeting late on Tuesday, ANSA sources said Wednesday.
Renzi, the leader of the centre-left Democratic Party, won
the backing of the smaller parties in his executive for his
plans for a new election law, Constitutional reform, including
the transformation of the Senate into a leaner assembly of
local-government representatives with minimal powers, and his
signature Jobs Act labour reform bill, which the ruling
coalition agreed to ratify by January 1.
The major concession Renzi gave the small government
parties, above all the New Centre Right (NCD) party of Interior
Minister Angelino Alfano, was to change the government's
election bill, lowering the threshold of votes needed for a
party to have representatives in parliament to 3%, the sources
said.
Such a low threshold cannot please ex-premier Silvio
Berlusconi for it would free smaller parties from the grip of
his opposition centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party, analysts
said.
The government also got a written commitment from junior
allies on a winner's bonus for parties that get a minimum of 40%
of the vote. The candidate heading a party list will be locked
in, but voters will be able to give their preference to other
candidates on the list, a certain number of which must be women.
The bill for a new election law that is currently before
parliament, the so-called Italicum, sets entry thresholds of
4.5% for parties within a coalition and 8% for parties that run
alone. The small parties risk having no lawmakers in parliament
under this system.
This version of the Italicum is the result of the so-called
Nazareno pact Renzi struck with Berlusconi at the start of the
year.
The fact that Renzi has now sealed a different deal within
his own ruling majority increases the pressure on Berlusconi and
sounds much like a challenge, analysts said.
The premier is essentially ready to go it alone, with or
without Forza Italia's backing, and aims to get the electoral
reform bill before a Senate committee within the week so it can
reach the floor of parliament by year's end and get ratified by
February.
Berlusconi must make up his mind on whether or not to
support the electoral reform, after the two leaders failed to
reach an agreement at a meeting last week in which Renzi
reportedly set Berlusconi a deadline of just a few days to
decide. The two are likely to meet again Wednesday to try to
hammer out a deal, sources told ANSA Tuesday.
"We have the numbers in parliament to go it alone, but our
ambition is to carry out the reforms with everyone," PD Deputy
Secretary Lorenzo Guerini said.
As well in the final document - which Renzi wrote himself
after last night's three-hour meeting with his coalition
partners - the government renewed its commitment to rule through
the end of its mandate in 2018.
"Early elections would be a mistake and an unacceptable
defeat," according to the document.
As well, the ruling coalition agreed to get a first reading
of the Senate reform bill through the Lower House by January and
the Upper House by March.
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