Institutional reform, what is and what is not in the government draft
First comments on the draft institutional reform with the prime ministership having received an initial approval from a majority summit. Paola Sacchi's note
Born as presidentialism, that is, "direct election of the President of the Republic", as stated in the common program with which the center-right presented itself at the elections of 25 September 2022, it has become a premiership. Very strong, which prevents reversals, technical governments and respects the popular verdict with which the voters will indicate the prime minister and his majority. Or rather, the prime minister could also be overturned, but not the majority which must always be the same, even with another exponent of the same at the helm.
If this way the voters and their vote are respected more, as stated by the secretary of the League, deputy prime minister and minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Matteo Salvini, it is not clear in the Meloni reform – according to the draft which received an initial approval from a top majority – what will be the streamlining of decision-making processes. Which was instead the number one inspiration of the "Great reform" outlined in 1979 by Bettino Craxi which provided for the direct election of the Head of State, accompanied by an electoral reform and also of parliamentary regulations, without the abolition of bicameralism, and an increase in the powers of the executive leadership. The abolition of bicameralism was instead the highlight of Matteo Renzi's reform.
The Meloni reform seems above all to focus on the need for the majority to remain the same, without increasing the powers of the prime minister and without particular decreasing those of the President of the Republic. Fabio Rampelli, co-founder of FdI and vice-president of the Chamber, underlines the fact that in this way there will be no more "rounds of waltzing and seaside governments". And if there will not be what Craxi defined as "that form of intervention by the people in public life which is the direct election of the Head of State", citizens will certainly be able to exercise that form of direct intervention with the election of the prime minister.
But the streamlining of decision-making processes currently appears in the shadows, what Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has always underlined as the need for coherence with respect to the majority that emerged from the polls to guarantee stability to the system seems to prevail. However, we will have to wait for the reform to be fully developed.
Pd and other oppositions, with the exception of Matteo Renzi, attack, judging it, like the dem secretary, Elly Schlein, to be a "weapon of distraction". This is consistent with the rejection by the left of all the institutional reforms proposed so far, from that of Craxi, who was depicted by cartoonists from the left-wing PCI area with a fez and high boots of fascist memory, to the internal boycott of the dems themselves of that referendum promoted by their own secretary Renzi, then prime minister who later resigned from Palazzo Chigi.
Stefano Ceccanti, constitutionalist and former deputy of the Democratic Party, underlines the lack of a minimum threshold for the majority bonus set at 55 percent, which could make the choice unconstitutional. Maurizio Lupi, leader of Noi moderates, clarifies to those who accuse that in this way the parliament will have less power and that therefore the decision-making processes would be streamlined with excessive decrees that there will be "the necessary counterweights".
Perplexity according to rumors also in some areas of the same majority about a certain rigidity of the outlined system. However, we are only at a draft of the bill by the Minister of Reform Elisabetta Casellati which will arrive in the Council of Ministers on Friday. And on which the majority found an initial agreement.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/riforma-istituzionale-cosa-ce-e-cosa-non-ce-nella-bozza-del-governo/ on Wed, 01 Nov 2023 07:38:20 +0000.