Gianfranco Fini: "Meloni was right to propose preferential voting. The vote now? It makes no sense whatsoever."

“Meloni was right to propose preferential voting. But you don’t ask turkeys to bring Christmas forward…” Gianfranco Fini makes this point in "Il Foglio". The former Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies is on holiday, "by the sea", but has been closely following the debate in Montecitorio on the electoral law. The centre-right majority split and was defeated on the amendment tabled by Fratelli d’Italia, which aimed to introduce preferential voting. "The Prime Minister didn’t just do well – she did brilliantly" in putting forward that proposal. But, he explains: "In the current Parliament, with closed lists, if preferential voting were introduced, a large proportion of those sitting in those seats would have not just the fear, but the certainty, of being left at home."

The text did not pass the vote; there were about thirty rebels. “I’m not interested in knowing which MPs voted against it. The phenomenon is simple.” Explain. “It is a Parliament in which MPs are appointed, and those who are appointed are afraid of being chosen, of having to go out and seek votes amongst the undecided and the sympathisers.” For this reason, Fini continues, “it is enough to be guaranteed a seat. Number one, number two, number three… and so on.” Having said that, the former leader of Alleanza Nazionale reiterates his positive view of Prime Minister Meloni’s move: “If you want to give the institutions a modicum of credibility and even propose, as the government has done, to elect the prime minister directly, it becomes difficult not to introduce the direct election of MPs as well.”

Meloni spoke yesterday of a quagmire. “And in fact, I now find myself in the middle of the sea…”. You can’t govern in a quagmire. Should we go to the polls? “If I’d wanted to tell you that, I’d have told you already,” jokes Fini. The political blow, however, has been dealt: “In fact, everything you read in the papers has happened. The government has fallen and the opposition is clamouring for a general election.” They were the first to shout “elections, elections”. “But it makes no sense whatsoever,” says the former Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, “yesterday an amendment was rejected, not a section of the text presented by the Council of Ministers.”

Did they play fair? “They played without scruples, cheerfully flouting the relationship between the Assemblies and the electorate, so that’s beside the point. Just like with the referendum.” “None of this surprises me,” Fini explains further. “In thirty years, I’ve seen it all. Do you know how many times a government has been defeated in Parliament? It wasn’t the first time.” What will happen now? “Now the bill will be passed by the Chamber of Deputies and then by the Senate – that’s it.” Is that all? “That’s all. Barring any other surprises at this stage…” Plot twists are much appreciated by those reporting on events. “No, we just need to record the facts and not take sides. The point I want to emphasise is this: it was right to try to introduce voting for individual candidates, i.e. to allow for preferences.” The ball is now in the Senate’s court, and it will be interesting to see whether the amendment seeking to introduce the mechanism for the direct election of MPs will be tabled there again, in the Chamber where, by standing order, a secret ballot is not permitted.