Electoral law: Meloni presses ahead and averts a crisis. All eyes are on whether the parliamentary groups will hold together

“A responsible government does not fall over an issue such as electoral law.” This is the refrain echoing through Palazzo Chigi in the wake of the rejection of the amendment on preferential votes so dear to Giorgia Meloni. The Prime Minister’s anger has not abated, but the handbrake has been applied to prevent a crisis from breaking out. Today’s aim is to push the reform through the Chamber of Deputies to uphold the guiding principle of stability and to try to avert ‘the quagmire’, to use the term employed by Meloni. All other decisions, however, have been postponed: from the resubmission of the preferential voting proposal to the Senate by Fdi and Noi Moderati to the possibility of an early general election before the end of the current parliamentary term in autumn 2027.

Together with her team, the Prime Minister is weighing up scenarios and opinion polls. She is also listening to those within Fdi who advise calling the whole thing off immediately, so as not to allow the broad coalition – which is still without a leader or a programme – to organise itself, and to prevent General Vannacci’s ranks and support from growing further; his amendment on preferential votes was voted for yesterday by Fdi and Nm, but not by FI and the League. Another rift in the coalition that has fuelled rumours of a mutual attraction between FDI and Futuro Nazionale. This was reinforced by Vannacci’s attack on the ‘Badoglian faction of the centre-right’, so similar to the ‘shame’ of those who ‘cowardly, even within the centre-right, refuse to declare how they will vote in order to keep their seats’, as expressed by the Minister for Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida.

But Meloni is well aware that a large proportion of MPs are opposed to the idea of calling a general election before April, when the elected representatives will become eligible for their pensions. Most of those serving their first term (a total of 184 out of 400 in the Chamber of Deputies, and 81 out of 200 in the Senate) are members of Fdi. The dates of May and June 2027 therefore remain circled in red on the calendar.

In the aftermath, efforts are being made to pour cold water on any potential showdowns with allies, to the extent that, despite contacts taking place yesterday with Antonio Tajani and Matteo Salvini, no summit between the leaders is scheduled for the coming hours. The acrimony is rife. “What sort of reflection is possible if the problems lie within Forza Italia and the League?” muses an Fdi minister. “What solutions can be found if there are two deputy prime ministers whose authority has been halved and who do not control their parties?” murmur Meloni’s supporters. Because, even though there appear to be at least 50 (rather than 30) dissidents within the centre-right – including between six and ten in Fdi – suspicions are directed first and foremost elsewhere: towards Marina Berlusconi’s loyalists and the Lega members who have never been keen on the reform as a whole.

The cohesion of the political groups is the main concern. In this context, it serves a purpose to kick the ball back into the opposition’s half (which Vannacci has dubbed a ‘graveyard’). Arianna Meloni posts a snapshot of the PD celebrating amongst the benches in Montecitorio: ‘Never forget this photo. The left rejoicing as if it had won the World Cup after rejecting Giorgia Meloni’s proposal to restore Italians’ right to choose who to send to Parliament. They are shameful.’ Words that reflect the Prime Minister’s sentiment.