Premierate and separation of careers on the brakes, seven decrees jammed in the House in July

A logjam of decrees, but also a period of reflection in view of the forthcoming confirmatory referendum on justice, have slowed down the progress of the two government reforms still on the table: the premierate and the separation of the careers of magistrates.

Explaining the first aspect was the Minister for Relations with Parliament, Luca Ciriani, after last Wednesday's Chamber's group leader ruled out the two reforms coming to the Chamber before the summer break. A month ago the same Ciriani, at the previous group leader's meeting called to plan the June-July work, had asked for the premierate to be included in that calendar. As for the separation of careers, now before the Senate assembly, the most optimistic had thought of a quicker process in Palazzo Madama, so as to bring the text to the Chamber's Constitutional Affairs Commission in early July and to the Chamber before the summer holidays. But the scenario has changed, as decided by the presidents of the parliamentary groups in Montecitorio.

The government, therefore, could do no more than recall the long list of decrees, no less than seven, that will rain down in July in the Chamber of Deputies, engorging it: deferment of terms for the damage to the Treasury, strategic infrastructures, Campi Flegrei and flooded areas, the Miur decree, the Ministry of Sport decree, the tax decree and the one on the former Ilva. Not to mention government bills that the executive cares about, such as the one on support for mountain areas or the one on artificial intelligence. Even the Minister for Reforms, Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati, said she hoped that the examination of the premierate in the Constitutional Affairs Committee would close 'in the autumn'.

The two reforms are at two completely different stages of the legislative process. The premierate has been approved by the Senate alone and is in first reading in committee in Montecitorio, still facing the amendment phase. The separation of the careers of the toga has already received the yes of the Chamber and the Senate Constitutional Affairs Committee, which confirmed the Chamber text; and in the Chamber the majority is also intent on doing the same. Therefore, when the ddl will return to the second reading in Montecitorio the process, according to Article 138 of the Constitution, will be swift: the text cannot be amended and can only be approved or rejected; the same applies to the future second reading in Palazzo Madama. .

At that point, after the final approval of the reform, the majority will have to face the confirmatory referendum. A decisive political step for the fate of the Meloni government. Speeding up the process of the ddl or slowing it down by a little allows the referendum to fall at the desired moment, since it could lead to early elections even in the event of a yes vote. Hence the discussion, for now informal, between the political forces on the electoral law that, in the majority's intentions, will have to be modified independently of the premierate.