Electoral law: appeals get underway; first hearing on 16 December
The Constitutional Court’s ruling could be handed down by January 2027
Twenty-five appeals against the electoral law – championed by the centre-right and having only just come into force – were lodged yesterday with as many divisions of the Court of Appeal across various Italian courts. No sooner said than done: the ‘Network for a Free and Equal Vote’, which brings together constitutional experts, lawyers and various associations, made the announcement at a press conference in the Senate attended by Roberto Zaccaria, Enrico Grosso and the lawyer Pietro Adami.
Towards a ruling by the Constitutional Court as early as January
But the news is that a first hearing has already been scheduled for 16 December at the Court of Trento. And this means that the Constitutional Court’s ruling could be handed down very soon, by January 2027.
The disputed points
As is well known, the petitioners are targeting the cornerstones of the Melonellum: namely, the majority bonus for parties securing over 42 per cent of the vote, and the requirement to name the candidate for Prime Minister at the time of submitting the electoral lists and party symbols, on pain of the lists being declared inadmissible. Taken together, these provisions would effectively establish a prime ministerial system, and thus constitute a change to the form of government without amending the Constitution. But the main focus of the challenge is the issue of compulsion: ‘A political party may legitimately stand in an election to represent certain interests, support specific legislative proposals or act as an opposition, without necessarily aspiring to appoint the Prime Minister’, is the argument.
It is precisely on this point – rather than on the majority bonus itself, which many opposition figures consider legitimate in theory – that the remaining hopes of those within the PD who wish to avoid coalition primaries to select the prime ministerial candidate are centred. ‘If the requirement is dropped,’ goes the reasoning, ‘we can stand as a coalition but without naming a “leader”, on the grounds that we are opposed to the introduction of the prime ministerial system by underhand means.’
As for who to send on TV to face Giorgia Meloni, that’s another matter entirely. As for the rest, there are eight points of contention in total: from ‘locked’ list leaders to multiple candidacies; from pre-compiled ‘long lists’ of 70 MPs and 35 senators that trigger the national bonus for the Senate as well; from the lack of gender quotas for list leaders to the increased number of signatures required to register a new party. On at least these last two points – gender quotas and the increase in the number of signatures required – the most authoritative constitutional experts consider it a certainty that the Court will intervene.
