Meloni wants to abolish Italian democracy as we know it
#128
My Dear Friend of Democracy,
Italian democracy has experienced 68 governments since its founding 75 years ago.
This instability has cost the country a lot of prosperity and brought some suffering.
Giorgia Meloni, prime minister of Italy since October 2022, wants to change that.
She has proposed a constitutional reform that would eliminate this instability – and, with it, essential elements of democracy.
That's her plan:
She wants to weaken the power of parliament and the president while simultaneously significantly strengthening that of the prime minister (ups, what a coincidence, that's herself).
More specifically, this is what Meloni's bill looks like:
In the future, the prime minister will be elected by the people. A simple majority will be enough (there will be no run-off elections). The election winner will automatically receive 55 per cent of the seats in parliament.
Meloni's plan would abolish democracy as we know it.
To name only the most critical problems:
The separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches would be abolished in favor of the government.
Personality cults would become central to politics (because the election of one person would determine legislative policy for five years).
People's opinions would no longer be reflected in politics in proportion to their presence in the population.
With this plan, Melonie would not stabilize democracy in Italy; she would only stabilize her power. Yes, there would be fewer government changes in the future, but there could also be no government changes at all for a long time to come.
✊ Here's the good news: It is far from certain whether Meloni will get her plan through. To change the constitution, she needs a two-thirds majority in both houses of parliament. She probably won't get that. What she can do then (and probably will): hold a referendum. Such a referendum could take place next year. So the Italians can then decide their own fate. – And by the way: I've been told that the Italians are very proud of their constitution and don't like to see it changed.
I hope the Italians keep their pride.
See you in Europe,
Johannes
PS: If you want to delve deeper into the topic, I recommend reading "A Constitutional Reform in Italy to the Detriment of Systemic Balance" by Edoardo D'Alfonso Masarié, who is a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy. And while I'm at it: The text is published on "Verfassungsblog", which I highly recommend. Verfassungsblog describes itself as "an academic and journalistic open access forum of debate on topical events and developments in constitutional law and politics in Germany, the emerging European constitutional space and beyond."