The Italian House of Deputies gave the green light in a first vote on the controversial electoral reform in Italy driven by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, paving the way for final approval, which may take place next Thursday.
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06/10/2026
by
Lusa
Ua total of 226 members voted in favour, 147 voted against and three abstained.
The text provides a bonus for the majority to ensure governability, so that the list or coalition that obtains at least 42% of the votes will be assigned a fixed number of seats, 70 in the case of the House of Representatives and 35 in the Senate.
If this threshold of 42% is not reached, the majority bonus will not be awarded in either of the two Italian chambers and the seats will be distributed fairly among the political forces that overcome the minimum barrier of 3%.
The measure would grant the winning block an operational majority even if it obtained less than 50% of the votes, which, according to Meloni, would imply that changes in the government would happen less frequently than in the past.
Under this new scheme, the uninominal circumscriptions, which will become plurinominal, are eliminated.
The citizen will no longer be able to vote for a specific candidate from his locality, but will have to mark directly the acronym of the party or coalition, accepting a closed list of candidates in a previously decided order by the leaders of the political formations.
The critical voices called the measure ‘Melonellum’ and ensure that these changes are intended to keep the Prime Minister in power.
After the votes on the three articles, the final vote on the whole of the law will take place on Thursday.
Meloni has turned the decision of the Lower House into a test for his government, so if these votes are not adopted, Italy could be forced to go to elections.