Premier Matteo Renzi on Monday
failed to rule out the option of using a confidence vote in the
Lower House to help the government's so-called Italicum
electoral reform bill clear what he hopes will be its final
reading in parliament.
"We'll see when the time comes for parliamentary debate,"
Renzi told RTL radio.
The Italicum seeks to replace the dysfunctional system -
the so-called pigsty law - that was declared invalid by the
Constitutional Court after being blamed for the inconclusive
outcome of the 2013 general election.
But many lawmakers, including a minority within Renzi's own
centre-left Democratic Party (PD), are demanding changes to the
bill, filing a total of 135 amendments. Of these, 20 were from
the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) and 13 from PD
dissidents opposed to what they say is Renzi's attempt to dilute
the power of parliament in favor of a strong executive.
With 38 of those amendments ruled inadmissible, the
50-member Lower House Constitutional Affairs committee is set to
begin voting on the remaining 97 on Tuesday afternoon.
But before that, the ruling PD is set to remove ten of its
rebel members from the Constitutional Affairs committee - where
the PD has 23 seats - after they announced they would not vote
for the Italicum.
"We said that we do not intend to vote for the individual
articles...(of the bill)," said Andrea Giorgis, one of the PD
rebels on the committee. "We were told that we will be replaced
(by the party)".
The Italicum is the result of a deal between Renzi and
former premier Silvio Berlusconi, whose opposition, centre-right
Forza Italia (FI) party has since pulled its support for the
bill and for a separate bill overhauling Italy's slow, costly
political machinery.
The Italicum would, among other provisions, award bonus
seats to the party that garners at least 40% of the vote to
ensure it has a working majority in parliament. A run-off round
of voting will take place to decide who gets the bonus seats if
no party crosses the 40% threshold.
It would also allow voters to choose most of their MPs via
preferences, with about a third of candidates nominated directly
by the party - but the dissenting PD minority wants all
lawmakers elected on the basis of voter preferences.
Renzi said the Italicum is a good bill because it would
allow voters not parties to pick MPs. "This electoral law has an
advantage, which is that we'll have a clear winner thanks to the
run-off vote," Renzi said. "I am premier by choice of parliament
and the president of the Republic, which is nonsensical. With
this law on the other hand we will know for certain who won, and
there won't be any more back-room deals".
The Italicum is slated to go to the floor of the House
early next week.
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