Left against directly elected PM for its own interests - Meloni

(ANSA) - ROME, APR 5 - 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". (ANSA).