Premier Giorgia Meloni's government
is set to propose a Constitutional reform that would see the
head of government directly elected by the people, Foreign
Minister Antonio Tajani told reporters on Wednesday.
Meloni has vowed to revamp Italy's institutions to ensure
government reflects the will of the people and is more effective
and stable, saying this was part of the manifesto for her
coalition's victorious election campaign last year.
This month she started a round of consultations with opposition
parties on such reforms.
Options included the direct election of the president as head of
government by the people; a French style semi-presidentialism
where the head of state is the head of government but picks a
premier to carry out their programme; and the direct election of
the premier by the Italian people.
After those talks, Meloni said the opposition parties had all
come out against the idea of directly electing the Italian
president, who under the current system is not the head of
government but acts a a sort of referee of Italian politics,
while stressing that opinions were varied about the idea of a
directly elected premier.
Under the current system, parties engage in government-formation
talks after a general election and then the coalition that forms
a ruling majority in parliament agrees on a figure to propose to
the head of State to become premier.
That figure is not necessarily one of the politicians given by
the parties as their premier candidate during the election
campaign.
"We don't have any prejudices, but it seems to me that we are
going towards a proposal for the direct election of the
premier," Tajani said.
He said the Constitutional reform should come in alongside
government's plans to allow regions to have greater levels of
autonomy.
In February, Meloni's government adopted a framework law on
differentiated autonomy which would enable regions to request
wider competencies and retain more of the tax revenues collected
in their areas.
Critics have said this will favour wealthier regions to the
detriment of poorer ones.
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