Parliament shrinks – Italy election campaign: many politicians excluded

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The Italian parties have presented the electoral lists with which they will participate in the general elections on 25 September. Experienced professionals compete with political novices for seats in parliament in Rome. Many well-known candidates had to be excluded. Because as a result of a parliamentary reform, the number of seats in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate has shrunk by a third.

600 parliamentary seats are at stake, a third less than the 945 available in the Senate and Chamber of Deputies since the Republic’s founding in 1946. The reform was passed in a referendum in 2020 to make parliament more efficient. However, the reduced number of available parliamentary seats is causing resentment among politicians, who now have to fight even harder for a seat.

Right-wing brothers Italy favorite
With the presentation of the electoral lists, the election campaign in Italy is really gaining momentum. Post-fascist Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy/FdI) party and favorite of these elections, opens her election campaign in the Adriatic city of Ancona on Tuesday evening. Your party is the only one that has no problem with the downsizing of the parliament. According to polls, the number of FdI MPs elected in the next term is expected to triple compared to the last election.

Meloni sends respected personalities into the running to give their party international recognition. The trump card in Meloni’s hand is the candidacy of ex-Minister of Economy Giulio Tremonti, a confidant of ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Meloni’s candidates also include ex-senate president Marcello Pera, former judge Carlo Nordio and ex-foreign minister Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata.

Berlusconi dreams of revenge
Forza Italia boss Silvio Berlusconi has a chance to win a Senate seat in his hometown of Milan. The 85-year-old media entrepreneur dreams of revenge. He was expelled from the Senate in November 2013 after being convicted of tax fraud. After a political ban of several years, he hopes to win a seat in the Senate and even be elected president of the Senate if the center-right alliance wins.

Berlusconi secured a candidacy for his partner Marta Fascina for the Chamber of Deputies in Lombardy. Berlusconi’s right-hand man, party coordinator and former EU MP Antonio Tajani, is also back in the running for Forza Italia, along with moderator Rita Dalla Chiesa.

Ex-minister of Sport excluded
The Democratic Party (PD), which according to polls will be competing with the Fratelli d’Italia for the rank of the strongest single party in the new parliament, has been arguing a lot over the candidatures. Ex-Sports Minister Luca Lottti was excluded from the PD election lists. Outgoing senator and former EU MP Gianni Pittella switched to ex-Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s small party Italia Viva. The PD can designate the economist Carlo Cottarelli and the virologist Andrea Crisanti as applicants.

Complicated voting rights
The Italian electoral law, a complicated mixture of majority and proportional representation, favors large alliances over individual parties. In the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, about 37 percent of the 200 and 400 seats, respectively, are allocated to candidates in individual constituencies, based on the first-past-the-post system. 63 percent of the mandates in the 20 regions of the country are distributed proportionally through candidate lists of parties or alliances. With a total of 45 percent of the vote, the center-right coalition around Meloni can count on very good opportunities, especially in the individual constituencies.

Source: Krone

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