Premier Matteo Renzi's reform plan
to make election results clearer and government easier took
another couple of key steps forward Wednesday.
The Senate Constitutional Affairs Committee on Wednesday
vetted a proposed amendment to the electoral-reform agreement
between Renzi's majority Democratic Party (PD) and ex-premier
Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia party.
According to the new norm, Senators would not be elected by
the general public but rather by regional councils,
proportionate to the representation by the council groups in the
Senate.
The committee also approved an amendment that brings to
800,000 the number of signatures required to propose a
referendum to repeal a law.
The senate reform bill goes to the Senate for voting
Thursday afternoon, with voting on the amendments to begin July
16.
PD leader Matteo Renzi struck a deal with Berlusconi six
months ago to reform the Senate and streamline elections and
government so as to avoid inconclusive results.
The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement has recently come to
the Constitutional-reform table despite fulminations from its
firebrand leader Beppe Grillo, reiterated Wednesday, that the
Renzi-Berlusconi pact is aimed at "saving Berlusconi's skin".
Grillo recently presented the M5S's proposal for a new
election system.
The proposal is for a new system based on proportional
representation that gives voters the opportunity to express
preferences about which candidates go to parliament, with a
mechanism to help make sure the party that wins has a working
majority in parliament.
The move came after Grillo's surprise announcement that he
was ready to talk to Renzi about election reform, having
previously spurned negotiations with the traditional parties.
Renzi replied that he was willing to talk to the M5S and
any other party to try to find common ground on the "rules of
the game".
Grillo's proposal is an alternative to the bill that the
premier is currently aiming to push through parliament by the
end of the summer to replace the dysfunctional system that was
declared unconstitutional last year and contributed to the
inconclusive outcome to the February 2013 national vote.
The bill was the result of an agreement Renzi reached in
January with Berlusconi a month before he unseated Letta to
become Italy's youngest premier at 39.
However, Berlusconi has on several occasions said he may
withdraw his backing for the bill and Constitutional reforms
agreed at the January meeting to overhaul Italy's costly,
slow-moving political apparatus.
Renzi's election bill, which has cleared the Lower House,
sets bars for small parties to force them into alliances and
limit their veto power, and provides a 15% winner's bonus for a
coalition that gets 37% to ensure it has a working majority in
parliament.
It would see a run-off vote for the bonus seats if no
coalition reaches the 37% threshold.
Grillo has said on his Facebook page that he "means
business" with his alternative.
"It's not a pure proportional representation (system), as
it allows a political party that obtains around 40% of the votes
to have over 50% of the seats," Grillo wrote in an open letter
in his popular blog, which gave life to the M5S in 2009.
Grillo' added that, in addition to giving voters the chance
to express preferences, something not featured in Renzi's
proposal, it would also give them the opportunity to say if
there is a particular candidate they do not want to represent
them.
Grillo said that Renzi's success in May's European
elections, when the PD gained over 40% of the vote, almost twice
as much as the M5S in second, was a big factor in his change of
approach.
"Two things have changed the scenario," wrote Grillo. "The
M5S has a (proposal for an election) law approved by its
members.
"Renzi has been legitimized by a popular vote and not just
by the votes of the PD. So a lot has changed".
Grillo had previously ruled out negotiations with the
established parties, including Renzi's PD, saying they are part
of a system that has produced corruption and economic decline.
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