The majority remains divided on the issue: the amendment tabled by Vannacci’s supporters has been rejected. Now the Senate is considering the matter

Just over twelve hours have passed since Giorgia Meloni’s allies scuppered the amendment on preferential votes, as the Chamber of Deputies resumed work on the electoral law. Following the opposition’s withdrawal of its amendments in protest – with the exception of those concerning voting rights for students living away from home – around sixty proposed amendments remain to be examined in the Chamber. The benches of both the majority and the opposition are full, with several ministers and undersecretaries also present. However, the timetable for the debate remains uncertain. The majority believes it can pass the reform by tomorrow, but there are two unknowns: both regarding what the opposition might do and what the majority’s strategy might be.

 When proceedings resumed, the Chamber rejected, by secret ballot, with 233 votes against and 139 in favour, the amendment tabled by Edoardo Ziello, MP for Futuro Nazionale. Earlier that morning, the Minister for Reforms, Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati, had changed her stance on the amendment regarding Futuro Nazionale’s preferences, from negative to positive. Fratelli d’Italia voted in favour of it, as Angelo Rossi, the architect of the electoral law, had hinted in the Chamber. But the Lega and Forza Italia did not agree. So if the amendment had passed, the rift within the majority would have widened even further. The Minister for European Affairs, Tommaso Foti, was very clear: “We certainly always do what we say we will do; as for the others, I don’t know. By ‘us’, I mean Fratelli d’Italia. Forza Italia and the Lega had declared their support for our amendment on preferences. Yet the result was not as expected: half an hour before the vote, I had anticipated at least 25–30 more votes in favour of our amendment. Not fewer…”.

Now another possibility is being mooted, which involves resubmitting the same amendment on preferences to the Senate as well, where there is no provision for a secret ballot, unlike under the Chamber of Deputies’ rules of procedure. It was the President of the Senate, Ignazio La Russa, who put this idea forward; last night he wrote on X: “In light of the vote on preferences, I would like to point out – as President of the Senate – that in a bicameral system there is a real possibility of amending, even in a targeted manner, what has been voted on in the Chamber of Deputies. Obviously, this would require a vote in favour; under the Senate’s rules of procedure, a secret ballot is not permitted on this point, and therefore the intentions of individual senators are made clear.” The Minister for Relations with Parliament, Luca Ciriani, speaking on SkyTg24, also seemed to suggest a similar scenario: “In the Senate, changes can naturally be made. I do not know if we will manage to pass the electoral law in the Senate before the summer recess, but it will certainly be among the first, if not the very first, measures to be examined by the Senate in September.” They were joined by the Lega’s group leader in the Senate, Massimiliano Romeo, who said that “in the Senate, we will have the opportunity to do what we can and must do for our voters.” 

Meanwhile, outside Montecitorio, Roberto Vannacci has accused the rebels, describing them – using terminology from the Second World War – as “Badogliani who fired on their own side from behind, using ammunition supplied to them by the Democratic Party, which called for a secret ballot”. But for the former general, “the game is not lost. Today we’re voting on the Fn amendment”. And he addressed the Prime Minister directly: “So I’ll say to Meloni what I’ve already said: show some backbone, go to Parliament, call the group leaders and let’s get this law on preferential voting passed, which will finally restore Parliament’s dignity”. Vannacci also took aim at the opposition: “In my view, the ‘cemetery’ has shown it doesn’t want preferential voting,” he said, playing on the reference to the broad centre-left coalition. These words were not enough, however, because, as we wrote earlier, the amendment was rejected. And it was precisely the leaders of the PD, AVS and M5S, along with the PD’s parliamentary group leader in the Chamber of Deputies, Chiara Braga, and the Nazareno’s head of organisation, Igor Taruffi, who gathered for a meeting lasting about half an hour. Under the watchful eyes of the former Speakers of the Chamber of Deputies, immortalised in the ‘Corea’ hall at Montecitorio, Elly Schlein, Giuseppe Conte, Nicola Fratoianni and Angelo Bonelli discussed the next steps to be taken in the Chamber ahead of the forthcoming amendments to the electoral law. In particular, according to reports, they discussed how to respond to the amendment tabled by FdI regarding voting rights for students living away from home.

Meanwhile, the Chamber of Deputies has approved, by secret ballot, the majority’s single amendment setting a maximum limit on the number of seats for any list or coalition receiving the majority bonus: 220 in the Chamber of Deputies and 113 in the Senate. This limit excludes seats won abroad. There were 222 votes in favour and 146 against. Before the vote, Giovanni Donzelli, Head of Organisation for FdI, addressed the Chamber: “After months of propaganda from the opposition, which portrayed this law as an affront to democracy because it would create an abnormal super-majority, this amendment sets out in black and white that there will be no abnormal majority that betrays democracy, nor any bending of constitutional rules. If the opposition votes against it, it will mean either that they wanted the super-majority that would have distorted democracy, or that they were making a mockery of the Italian people.”