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POLITICS

Italy to vote on slashing the number of seats in its parliament

Italy's parliament is set to vote on Tuesday on cutting the number of representatives in the country's upper and lower houses from a whopping 945 to 600.

Italy to vote on slashing the number of seats in its parliament
Italy has the second-highest number of parliamentarians in Europe. Photo: Filippo Monteforte / AFP

Slashing the total number of MPs and senators in Italy by 345 – more than a third – was a flagship manifesto promise of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, which is now in power as part of a coalition government, and has promised voters it would tackle political elitism and wasteful spending.

READ ALSO: Here are the main things Italy's prime minister says his government will do

The cut – dubbed the “taglia poltrone” by Italian media – would reduce the number of MPs to 400 and senators to 200 from the next legislature, with an expected saving of some 100 million euros ($110 million) a year.

“It's a well-balanced reform with an excellent profile,” legal expert Guido Neppi Modona told Il Fatto Quotidiano on Monday.

A reduced number of lawmakers will “lead parties to take particular care in choosing candidates,” he said.

Italy's current left-leaning government also hopes the planned constitutional reforms, which also include changes to electoral law, could help keep the populist right from power.

Italy's chamber of deputies in September 2019. Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFP

Critics have warned however that the cut could affect popular representation, and increase the influence of lobbyists over governing institutions – all for a minimal saving that will have little effect on debt-laden Italy's book balance.

Italy currently has one of the highest numbers of lawmakers in the EU – some 630 elected representatives in the lower house and 315 in the Senate.

Italy also has the third-highest number of lawmakers in the world, after China, which has nearly 3,000 members of parliament, and the UK, with a total of 1,443 (793 of which are unelected members of the House of Lords, or upper house).

On Monday, the chamber of deputies was almost empty as only 35 MPs turned up for a debate ahead of the vote, the Corriere della Sera reported.

This is Italy's eighth attempt to cut its number lawmakers since 1983, according to the Open news website.

This time it is broadly expected to be successful, with most opposition parties on board – though the head of Italy's far-right League Matteo Salvini warned on Friday that his party may not vote in favour of the cut.

Five Star (M5S) made the cut a condition of its alliance with the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), following the collapse of its previous coalition with Salvini's League in August.

Five Star Movement leader and Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio in the chamber of deputies last month. Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFP

The PD, long a target of M5S jibes about “establishment” politics, had previously voted against the reduction, but has now agreed to support it in order to clinch a deal to form a government with the M5S.

The party has insisted the cut be followed by a new electoral law, and is pushing for the reintroduction of a proportional representation system

Under the current mix of proportional representation and first-past-the-post, a winning coalition needs more than 40 percent of the vote to have the necessary parliamentary majority.

With full proportional representation, parties or coalitions would need a much bigger majority to form a government.

That would make it more diffcultSalvini to win in future elctions if he chose to run alone or with a small fellow far-right party, and force him instead to turn to former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italy party for help, the weekly L'Espresso said.

Lorenzo Codogno, former chief economist at the Italian Treasury Department, told AFP the pressing need to change the electoral law could serve as glue to hold the coalition government together.
He warned however that “I have a feeling that (the electoral law) won't happen very soon”.

International markets and European investors watching the stability of the new coalition were right “to worry about everything,” he said.

READ ALSO: Four key economic challenges facing Italy's new government

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TERRORISM

Italy on maximum terror alert over Easter after Moscow attack

Italy was to increase surveillance in busy areas ahead of the Easter holidays and following the bombing of a Moscow concert hall, ministers agreed on Monday.

Italy on maximum terror alert over Easter after Moscow attack

Italy’s national committee for public security, chaired by Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, on Monday said anti-terrorism monitoring in Italy must be strengthened ahead of the Easter holidays, with more surveillance to be carried out at popular tourist spots and at “sensitive sites”.

The committee agreed on “the importance of continuing monitoring activity, including online, by police and intelligence forces for the identification of possible risk situations” in Italy, reported news agency Ansa.

The security meeting was convened following the terrorist attack in Moscow on Friday where armed men opened fire and set the building ablaze, killing at least 133 people.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani had stressed to the public on Sunday that Italy faced “no concrete risk” and said the country’s security and law enforcement services were “always on the alert to prevent any attack.”

“During the Easter holidays you will need to be very careful. We will always do the utmost to ensure the safety of citizens and tourists,” Tajani said, speaking on national broadcaster Rai’s current affairs show Restart.

READ ALSO: Terror alerts: Should I be worried about travelling to Italy?

The fight against terrorism “has nothing to do with the war in Ukraine,” the minister continued.

“We support Ukraine” as an invaded country in which international law has been violated, he said, “but as the Italian government we have expressed our condemnation of the attack [in Moscow] and closeness to the families of the victims and the survivors”.

Cabinet Secretary Alfredo Mantovano said on the same programme that the main terrorist threat Italy faced at the moment was mainly from “lone wolves” and “not so much from organised groups.”

“I believe that a group like the one that acted in the Moscow attack, which must have been trained and had logistical support, would be intercepted sooner in Italy,” he said.

“The most worrying threat” in Italy was online recruitment, he said, noting that propaganda was closely monitored.

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