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 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.
What was the existing system in Italy?
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.
Following the Second World War and the end of the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini, the ‘first republic’ devised the parliament in such a way that it would be difficult for a single party to consolidate power. While the whole system has gone through multiple changes thorugh the years, the complex multi-member constituencies and proportional representation at the base incentivised coalitions and ensured decentralisation.
The system that brought Ms. 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. While first-past-the-post seats gave popular candidates entry into parliament and proportional representation, 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.
What are the changes under the new system?
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. While similar systems have existed previously, 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. 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.
If several parties or coalitions go past the 42% mark, the bonus will be awarded to the entity with the most votes. The ‘bonus seats’ are capped to prevent any party or coalition from getting more than 220 seats in the Chamber and 113 in the Senate. The rules have also set a bar on entry for parties or coalitions to parliament, with coalitions having to secure at least 10% votes and individual parties 3% to be considered for seat-sharing under the representation system.
The reforms have also raised the number of signatures needed for new parties or those that are currently not in parliament from 1,500 to 6,000, a move critics say would make it difficult for smaller parties to enter parliament.
How is the Prime Minister and her allies seeing the reform?
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. “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.
Calling the changes a “revolution”, Giovanni Donzelli, a senior leader of Ms. Meloni’s party, told AFP that “Italians will finally have the real weight with their vote as the will choose the coalition, the platform, and the candidate for Prime Minister”.
What is the Opposition reaction to the move?
While the administration has touted the reforms as a step towards political stability, 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. Meloni to stay in power. 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”.
The rise of a new far-right party, the National Future, led by former General Roberto Vannacci, is also eroding Ms. Meloni’s vote base, meaning she would find it hard to garner an outright majority for her coalition in the next general election. Opposition parties have vowed to challenge the reforms in court, where, they believe, most of the new provisions could be struck down, a possibility that could encourage Ms. Meloni to trust her odds with the new provisions and call a snap election.
Published – October 09, 2026 09:52 am IST
