With just more than a year to go before her coalition government has to step down for election, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has successfully introduced a set of reforms in parliament to overhaul the European country’s electoral system to introduce a fully proportional structure with ‘bonus seats’ for the most popular party or coalition. T
The system that brought Ms. where seat allocation for a party or coalition was decided based on its vote share, ensured that smaller and regional had their voices in parliament While first-past-the-post seats gave popular candidates entry into parliament and proportional representation. Ms. Meloni has projected the reforms as a way to ensure that Italy will always have a stable government with the bonus seats giving popular coalitions the required majority in parliament.
Meloni to power in 2022 was a hybrid one, nicknamed ‘Rosatellum’ after independent lawmaker Ettore Rosato, where roughly 64% of seats in both the 400-member Chamber of Deputies and the 200-member Senate were decided through proportional representation while the remaining 36% seats went to first-past-the-post winners. The new rules, approved by lawmakers in a secret ballot on Thursday (October 8, 2026) with 227 votes against 164, scraps the first-past-the-post seats and puts the whole parliament under proportional representation. the contentious/ambitious clause guarantees up to 70 bonus seats in the Chamber, and 35 in the Senate, to the party or coalition that secure at least 42% votes While similar systems have existed previously.
This, according to the supporters of the rules, will ensure that polls that would in other cases turn out inconclusive could still produce a majority government with enough strength to run the parliament. “Stable governments and greater participation mean more continuity, more accountability, and a greater ability to provide concrete answers to Italians,” the Prime Minister wrote in a social media post after the reforms were approved.
What is the Opposition reaction to the move?
The approval for the reforms comes weeks after Ms. Meloni’s centre-right coalition, in its first term, became the longest-serving administration in the country since the Second World War, and the move has been heralded by its supporters as key to ensure political stability. However, critics and Opposition lawmakers have raised concerns, saying that the overhaul is aimed at ensuring that the ruling coalition, trailing in opinion polls, hold on to power. The fact that Ms. Meloni’s administration made the record for the longest continuous post-war reign in its first term shows that Italian politicians have always had trouble staying in power. Meloni to stay in power.
major Opposition parties, who are leading in opinion polls with the tenure of the current government ending in December 2027, has flagged attempts by Ms While the administration has touted the reforms as a step towards political stability.
Calling the reforms a “mess”, Guiseppe Conte, former Prime Minister and leader of opposition Five Stars Movement told the AFP that it is a “convoluted scheme devised solely to find a formula to gain an advantage in the upcoming elections”.
