Meloni asks for confidence vote on electoral reform to secure the ballot.

The Meloni government has decided to secure the electoral reform by calling for a confidence vote in the Chamber. The Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, announced that there will be no secret votes on individual amendments, but only a final secret vote, after the government has placed its confidence on each of the four articles amended by the Senate. Any stumble in the final vote would directly lead to the end of the legislature.

The message to any potential dissenting members has been very clear. The text of the reform, nicknamed "Stabilicum," returns to committee in Montecitorio, where the deadline for amendments expires on Tuesday, September 22. The intensive work will lead to its arrival in the Chamber, postponed to September 29, to meet the constrained timeline of October. Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani described the possibility that the reform might not pass as "a hypothetical period of unreality."

The electoral reform under discussion, called "Stabilicum," stems from the center-right majority's desire to change the current system, the Rosatellum, introduced in 2017. The stated goal is to create a more stable system that allows citizens to choose the prime minister, coalitions, program, and parliamentarians, avoiding short-lived governments formed by those who lost the elections.

The legislative process has been complex. After the initial readings, the reform suffered a setback with some defections in the vote on preferences, prompting the government to consider using the confidence vote to avoid further mishaps. The key players are the Meloni government, which leads the majority composed of Brothers of Italy, the League, and Forza Italia, and the parliamentary opposition, which contests various aspects of the bill, particularly the methods for collecting signatures for candidacies. The stakes are high: the failure of the reform could jeopardize the entire legislative term.