New electoral law approved: majority bonus and preferential votes.

The Italian Parliament has definitively approved the electoral law reform. The Chamber of Deputies gave its approval with 227 votes in favor and 164 against, in a secret ballot that saw the center-right majority united. The new law introduces a proportional system corrected by a fixed majority bonus of 105 parliamentarians (70 deputies and 35 senators) awarded to the coalition that exceeds 42% of the votes.

The measure reintroduces the preference vote, which has been absent for over thirty years, allowing voters to directly choose candidates. Furthermore, it obliges parties and coalitions to indicate their prime ministerial candidate and government program before the elections. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni described the reform as a response to "those who believed us divided," emphasizing that it will ensure "stable governments and greater participation."

The electoral reform approved today stems from a decades-long debate on the stability of Italian governments. After the fall of the so-called "First Republic" in the early 1990s, Italy has experimented with numerous electoral systems: from the Mattarellum (majoritarian with proportional correction) to the Porcellum (proportional with a majority bonus), up to the Rosatellum (mixed system) still in force. Each change has sought to balance representation and governability, but governments have often remained short-lived and unstable.

The current center-right majority, led by Giorgia Meloni, has made electoral reform one of its main objectives since taking office in 2022. The newly approved law explicitly aims to create a "healthy bipolarism" where "the winner governs and the loser goes into opposition," eliminating what are called "majorities built without voters' knowledge" after the election. The return to preferences, abolished in 1993, represents an important symbolic element, while the fixed majority bonus seeks to ensure stability regardless of electoral results.