Giorgia Meloni is pressing ahead with an overhaul of Italy’s electoral system that Opposition parties have denounced as an “authoritarian” attempt to secure victory in next year’s general election.
In advance of a parliamentary debate due to start on Friday, the prime minister said the changes would ensure a stable government after years of political turmoil that plagued Italy before she came to power.
“Today we are seen as an anchor of stability in Europe; yesterday we were an unstable Italy in a more stable Europe,” Meloni told a public forum on Tuesday. “I certainly don’t want Italy to go back to being unstable.”
At the heart of the government’s proposal is a system of proportional representation, with the creation of an extra seats “majority prize” that will be awarded to the political coalition that wins most votes, allowing it to govern, even if it falls short of an outright majority.
READ MORE
To qualify for the bonus of up to 17.5 per cent of the seats in parliament, parties would have to run on a common platform and agree on a prime ministerial candidate – a nod to Meloni’s now-abandoned push to amend Italy’s post-fascist constitution and create a directly elected prime minister.
The winning coalition must reach a minimum threshold of 42 per cent of the vote to claim “majority bounty” or else the extra seats will be distributed proportionally.
“It’s a proportional law – whoever gets the most votes governs,” Meloni argued. “But it does give whoever gets the most votes the power to have a majority to govern for five years. This should be something we can all agree on, especially the left.”
Lorenzo Castellani, a political scientist at Rome’s Luiss University, said Meloni’s election system reform reflects a sense of anxiety over her re-election prospects in next year’s vote, which could take place as early as April.
In 2022, Meloni’s centre-right coalition won handily over a deeply divided opposition. But now the Democratic Party, the populist 5-Star Movement and other opponents, which teamed up to thwart her bid to reform the justice system, are aiming to wage a united election campaign.
“Changing an electoral law is always a sign of weakness,” Castellani said. “If you have to change the rules for winning, it means you don’t feel very secure to potentially win an election.”
Opposition parties have vowed to block the reform. “We will not allow the electoral law to pass,” Elly Schlein, leader of the opposition Democratic Party, said on Tuesday, adding that aspects of the law are “clearly unconstitutional”.
Her party colleague Marco Meloni (no relation to the premier) said the proposal was “an authoritarian plan that concentrates power in the hands of a single person”.
Riccardo Magi from the smaller Più Europa opposition party denounced “an incoherent mix of different systems” geared towards securing a majority for the ruling coalition.
“The Italian political system is once again falling prey to this anti-democratic curse, dictated by the main parties’ habit of tailoring electoral law to their needs,” Magi said.
The law is modelled on a controversial 2005 election law introduced by then prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. Dubbed the “Porcellum” (“pig’s dinner”), that law included a “majority bonus” and was used in three elections until it was struck down by the constitutional court in 2013.
Senator Lucio Malan, the whip for Meloni’s ruling Brothers of Italy party, said the system will ensure a “stable government” allowing parties to implement the platforms they ran on, at a time when polls show the electorate nearly split down the middle.
But he denied it would automatically lead to a victory for Meloni’s coalition. “We can very well be beaten,” he said. “In order to have a strong stable majority, whether it is ours or whether it is the left’s, it’s better to have such a law.”
The requirement for electoral coalitions to identify their prime ministerial candidates in advance will also create difficulties within Italy’s centre-left opposition camp, which both Schlein and 5-Star leader Giuseppe Conte, aspire to lead.
The draft legislation would also make it harder for smaller parties to get on the ballot by requiring them to collect 500,000 signatures – a provision widely seen as aimed at former general Roberto Vannacci and his fledgling hard-right movement, Futuro Nazionale, or National Future.
Vannacci, who split from deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini’s League earlier this year, has gained support among right-wing voters disillusioned with Meloni’s coalition.
Edoardo Ziello, a former League lawmaker who has defected to Futuro Nazionale, called the proposed signature requirement “absurd” but said it would not halt the movement’s progress.
– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026
