I never thought that these fascists would hollow out the democracy so quickly. Automatically 55% in parliament for the party with the most votes, regardless of the share on total votes That’s a huge hit on democracy
Then again,
a constitutional reform to directly elect the head of government
this is the opposite of fascism.
That’s not the issue many people have. The issue is that the party with the highest percentage share automatically gets 55% of the seats in parliament even when it only got e.g. 18% of all votes.
Under the proposal, the prime minister would be elected for a period of five years and the coalition supporting the winning candidate will be given at least 55% of seats
Got it, thank you.
In the context of the Italian political system, that would mean that whoever gets a relative majority - as low as it may be - forms a powerful government that cannot be removed from power for the whole of the term, during which it can do as it pleases as opposition is functionally useless.
Now that may not be a dictionary definition of fascism, but surely it’s a shiv in the neck of democracy and a pretty big step towards dictatorship.
The good thing is that it requires citizens to vote for it in a referendum.
The bad thing is that all it requires is to swindle people, which seems to be pretty easy nowadays considering that all referendums in Italy have had the worst possible result for the last 20 years or so.
This is essentially how it works in France… And it’s bad. The president gets elected with 20% of the votes and then he has a majority in the parliament (relative majority for this term) but it means the parliament is useless. Look up article 49.3 of the constitution and its uses by the current prime minister.
So, France is fascist?
Fascism and democracy are on a spectrum, and we definitely aren’t as close to democracy as I would like.
Depending on where you draw the line on the spectrum you can consider France is fascist, or in a pre-fascist state.
The executive is very powerful, to the point that the minister of justice is currently undergoing trial, and keeps his position. Of course he is judged by a literal two speed justice system, by a special court reserved for members of the executive branch.
Is it, though? Fascism often fixates on the strong leader who is going to fix everything. Electing someone and giving them and their party almost all possible power in you legislative system goes a long way in that direction.
That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. The parliament would effectively be useless when it is dependent on the prime minister, you could just elect a king and skip it altogether.
This is implementing First Past the Post with extra steps. It’s a terrible idea.
There’s a reason the Westminster system (UK, Canada, etc) is often referred to as an Elective Dictatorship
Italy has quite a long history of right wing governments being overturned and replaced with technical government or even “emergency governments” led by opposition leaders. She wants to put an end to this because she fears it for her (current and future) governments as well.
Governments lasting so little in Italy make it less reliable and makes it almost impossible to carry out any substantial (but much needed) reformation for a country that has been stuck in immobilism for decades.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Repeated attempts to produce a more robust system, the last in 2016, have always foundered amid myriad, competing visions and, given the steps needed, there is no guarantee it will become law this time.
The right-wing administration of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who took office last year, made ending the country’s chronic political instability strengthening the bond between governments and voters a key policy plank.
Under the proposal, the prime minister would be elected for a period of five years and the coalition supporting the winning candidate will be given at least 55% of seats, to make sure it has a workable majority in both houses of parliament.
If approved, the plan would make it impossible for presidents to appoint outside technocrats to run governments, a power they have repeatedly used to end political stalemate.
Meloni told a news conference that the proposal would bring to an end the season of governments with no electoral backing that “implemented policies that citizens had not decided”.
Meloni’s predecessor Mario Draghi, the former head of the European Central Bank, led the last technocrat government after being called in by President Sergio Mattarella in 2021 to end a political crisis with COVID then battering Italy.
The original article contains 486 words, the summary contains 201 words. Saved 59%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
