Ex-premier and Italia Viva (IV) leader
Matteo Renzi said Tuesday that he had presented a bill in the
Senate to reform the Constitution so that the head of government
is directly elected by people.
Premier Giorgia Meloni's ruling coalition also wants to reform
the Constitution along these lines but the main opposition
parties are against.
"On the basis of what has been said, this bill has the support
of the ruling majority and a part of the opposition, but it has
been on ice for nine months," said Renzi.
"Today we hand it in".
He said his centrist, opposition party was ready to debate the
bill in August, rather than going on holiday.
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.
Renzi proposed a major overhaul of Italy's institutional
apparatus when he was premier but it was rejected in a
referendum, prompting him to quit as head of government in
December 2016.
He was head of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) at the time
but he left the main opposition group to form IV in 2019.
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