First evidence of premierate, 73.1% of laws are by the Meloni government

The battle in the Senate over the 'Italian-style' premierate, dear to Giorgia Meloni, will restart after the European and local elections. But one element is basically already shared in Parliament: even before knowing whether the reform will actually take off, perhaps after consulting the Italians via referendum, it is already evident how the government is gaining a lot of ground compared to that actually assigned to the Chambers by the Constitution. It is no coincidence that the oppositions are already talking about the first trials of premierate, which, to tell the truth, have in fact already been underway for some legislatures. The latest data from the study service of Montecitorio seem to confirm the growing weight of the executive in parliamentary activity: from 13 October 2022, when the current legislature (the nineteenth) began, to the end of last 13 May, a good 87 of the 119 laws approved by Montecitorio and Palazzo Madama were government-initiated. In short, 73.1% of the measures definitively passed by Montecitorio and Palazzo Madama came from Palazzo Chigi. In 18 months, it has also passed 59 decree-laws (to which another one by the Draghi government should be added), 51 of which have been converted into law. From the dossier it emerges that in the period monitored the government for the approval of 32 ordinary laws 'has resorted, in at least one branch of Parliament, to the position of the question of confidence' and in 19 cases the 'armour-plating' was triggered in both Chambers.

The latest monitoring of the Chamber's Study Service (Legislative and Parliamentary Observatory) indicates that in the first part of the current legislature, between 13 October 2022 and 13 May 2024, 119 laws were approved: one constitutional revision law of parliamentary initiative (Constitutional Law No. 1 of 2023, for the inclusion of sport among the constitutionally protected values) and 118 ordinary laws. The latter group includes 51 'conversions' of decree-laws and 67 other ordinary laws: 36 are government-initiated (including the two budget laws for 2023 and 2024), 29 are parliamentary-initiated and 2 are mixed (one governmental and parliamentary, and the other parliamentary and Cnel (introduction of the so-called oncological oblivion). The dossier points out that in the same period, 60 decree-laws were passed (1 by the Draghi government, the rest by the Meloni government), of which 51 were 'converted', and 62 legislative decrees and 3 delegation regulations were published. "In the period considered, therefore," reads the report, "of the 119 laws approved, 87 were of government initiative (73.1%), 30 of parliamentary initiative (25.2%) and 2 of mixed initiative (1.7%)".

The dossier by the Montecitorio experts shows that in the first 18 months of the current parliamentary term, the government in 32 of the laws passed had recourse to a vote of confidence in at least one of the branches of parliament. In 19 cases, confidence was placed in both chambers. The Senate's database shows that from the beginning of the legislature to the end of 4 June, 53 'armour pledges' were made on the bills on the ballot.

In 18 months, 60 decrees have been passed (one of which is attributable to the Draghi executive), 51 of which, as mentioned, have been converted. The dossier also points out that there are 7 decree-laws that have lapsed because they have been repealed and adds that 'the content of these decree-laws, however, has been included, with amendments approved during the parliamentary process, in other measures'. It is precisely the massive recourse to urgent decrees, on which the Head of State has also intervened in the past, urging respect for the Constitution, that has ended up in the crosshairs of the opposition and the Montecitorio Committee for Legislation, which, like its sister body in the Senate, has also repeatedly criticised the phenomenon of 'confluences' between different decrees. For the opposition, in particular, we are facing a de facto premierate. But at the end of May, the undersecretary to the Prime Minister's Office, Alfredo Mantovano, stated that 'if we want to follow this tale, the premierate was already in place even in the 'Conte 2' government and in the 'Draghi government', because we are absolutely in line with the number of decree-laws of previous governments'. However, Mantovano confirmed that 'there is certainly a problem of weakness in the relationship between the government and Parliament that in the presence of emergencies (think of the flood in Emilia-Romagna a year ago and now probably what will happen to deal with the Phlegraean Fields emergency) imposes the need to have regulations in place immediately to deal with urgent issues'.