Just over 24 hours after the text arrived at the Quirinale, Sergio Mattarella authorized the presentation to the Chambers of the Prime Minister’s constitutional bill, approved by the Council of Ministers on November 3rd and which reached the Quirinale. Giving the green light to transmit a bill to Parliament is the duty of the President of the Republic. The speed with which the OK was received from the Colle tenant and its offices, however, almost seems to want to make clear the Quirinale’s desire not to interfere with the reform desired by Giorgia Meloni and put in black and white by minister Elisabetta Casellati. Parliament is sovereign and possibly voters will be too if a referendum is approved, is the reasoning that filters from the former palace of the Popes. Quirinale, in fact, chose from the beginning to stay out of the match. Although the rumor that the Colleague’s intervention was behind the decision to maintain the appointment of ministers by the President of the Republic had been circulating for a long time in the corridors of Montecitorio and Palazzo Chigi, Mattarella made a point of not intervening in any way in the process of a constitutional reform that would affect its powers. In short, no interference, request for modification or veto, and “non-sharing” of the text during the writing phase, was the emphasis. The bill on the position of prime minister can now begin its parliamentary process. As the text intends to amend the Constitution, it is necessary to read it twice by the Chamber and the Senate, no less than three months apart. In the second vote, to receive the green light, an absolute majority of members of each Chamber is required. If the reform is approved by each of the Chambers with a majority of two thirds of its members, “no popular referendum will be held”, states the Charter.
“We will work so that” the reform “can have the broadest possible consensus and reach a two-thirds majority”, reiterated Meloni in recent days. The Prime Minister, in any case, said she was convinced that even in the case of a referendum “the majority of Italians will take advantage of the historic opportunity to accompany Italy in the Third Republic and make it a mature, more stable and efficient democracy”. The Casellati bill will begin its journey through Parliament in the Senate. It is above all the votes of living Italy that the majority seeks, but Matteo Renzi retreats from the reform: «I am in the same position as always: I am in favor of the direct election of the Prime Minister. The problem is that this reform must not be messed up – reiterates the former prime minister – Is it possible for us to directly elect the prime minister and this or that person not even have the power to dismiss or appoint ministers? With the Casellati reform, a mess, the prime minister cannot do this.”
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
