Italy Rewrites Election Rules Before 2027 Vote

Rome — Italy's lower house of parliament on 8 October gave final approval to a fiercely contested overhaul of the rules for electing lawmakers, a change championed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni that will shape a national election due next year.

In a secret ballot, deputies voted 227 to 164 for the bill. It replaces Italy's hybrid voting system with a fully proportional one and adds a large seat bonus for any party or coalition that clears 42 percent of the vote. Opposition parties called the reform a "scam" and said Meloni's right-wing coalition had rewritten the rules to keep power. Meloni said the aim was stable government and that whoever wins must be able to govern.

What changes

Under the old hybrid system, about a third of members were chosen in first-past-the-post races — winner-take-all districts — and the rest by proportional representation, which allocates seats roughly in line with each party's share of the vote. The new law moves to proportional voting across the board, with a 3 percent threshold for parties to win seats, Il Sole 24 Ore reported.

Any party or coalition that wins the largest share of the vote and clears 42 percent will receive a fixed bonus of 105 extra seats — 70 in the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house) and 35 in the Senate — enough to turn a narrow win into a working majority, the BBC and Reuters reported. Il Sole said the bonus stops at 220 of the Chamber's 400 seats, or 55 percent, and 113 senators. That keeps a winning bloc roughly within the constitutional limit meant to stop a majority from electing the president or constitutional judges, or changing the constitution, on its own.

Coalitions that want to govern together must publish a joint programme and name their candidate for prime minister before the election. Preferential voting — letting voters mark preferred candidates on a party list — returns in a limited form: list leaders are fixed automatically, and voters may mark up to three further names, alternating genders if they mark more than one, Il Sole reported.

What it means in practice

The new rules first apply at Italy's next general election, due by the autumn of 2027 and possibly as early as the spring. Under them, a bloc that wins just over 42 percent of the vote would get a working majority in both houses, and voters would know before polling day who that bloc wants as prime minister. Supporters say that ends deal-making after the vote. Italy is the European Union's third-largest economy and a member of the G7 group of rich democracies, so who governs it, and how firmly, matters well beyond Rome.

Why Meloni pushed it

Meloni's coalition has governed since 2022 and last month became Italy's longest-lasting government since World War Two, the BBC reported. She had warned she could resign and force an early election if the bill failed. Analysts noted that many lawmakers risked losing parliamentary pension eligibility if a snap election cut their term short.

"We are introducing rules designed to promote the stability and parliamentary coherence of any government, regardless of its political colour," Meloni wrote after the vote. "Whoever wins must be able to govern," she posted, Reuters reported.

"To those who hoped to see the centre-right divided, today we respond with facts: we are united, cohesive, and determined to carry forward the commitments made to citizens," she added.

What the opposition said

Centre-left deputies held signs reading "No to the scam" and "fraudulent law" during the debate. Democratic Party leader Elly Schlein said: "Go ahead and change the electoral law, we will win in any case under any voting system." Former prime minister Giuseppe Conte of the Five Star Movement told AFP the bill was "a mess, a convoluted scheme, devised solely to find a formula to gain an advantage in the upcoming elections," the BBC reported.

Lawyers and law professors working with opposition lawmakers plan to set out legal challenges on 12 October, aiming for a ruling from Italy's Constitutional Court before the election, Il Sole reported.

The political map has shifted

When the reform was designed, Meloni's bloc led the polls. Since February a new far-right party, National Future (Futuro Nazionale), has taken support from the governing parties. Polls now show the centre-left ahead of the ruling coalition, and some analysts say the reform may backfire on Meloni, Reuters reported. The requirement to name a prime-minister candidate before the vote also squeezes the opposition: Schlein's Democrats and Conte's Five Stars disagree over who should lead if they win.

Meloni's term runs to October 2027; she could still call an earlier spring vote.