Premier Giorgia Meloni has said the
centre-left opposition is against the government's plan to
reform the Constitution so that the Italian prime minister is
directly elected by people because it will stop them getting to
power via deals between parties.
Meloni says the Constitutional reform would ensure Italy is
governed by leaders chosen by the people and would make
administrations more stable.
Under the current system, parties engage in government-formation
talks after a general election and then the coalition that forms
a ruling majority in parliament agrees on a figure to propose to
the head of State to become premier.
That figure is not necessarily one of the politicians given by
the parties as their premier candidate during the election
campaign.
The centre-left Democratic Party (PD), meanwhile, has mooted the
idea of introducing a system like the German one with a
chancellor.
"The Left has given away its real intentions with the
chancellorship proposal," Meloni told Rai television on
Thursday.
"The problem is that they have failed to declare the real reason
why they are against the direct election (of the premier).
"They prefer a system in which governments are created in the
palaces of power at the citizens' expense.
"The chancellorship effectively institutionalizes
grand-coalition governments.
"The chancellorship has led to grand-coalition governments in
Germany.
"With that system, you vote for a party, but you don't know
which government you will find yourself with the next day".
She also said that it is "not true that the premiership (reform)
weakens the President of the Republic.
"We have been very careful not to touch the prerogatives of the
head of state," she said.
"With the chancellorship the president has a lesser role than in
ours".
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