13 November 2023
Looking at Berlin, Ending up on Capitol Hill
On 3 November 2023, the Italian Council of Ministers approved a constitutional reform bill to introduce the direct election of the Prime Minister in Italy. The reform would grant the Prime Minister significantly broader powers than those currently outlined in the Constitution. The proposal is now set to be evaluated by the Italian Parliament, and possibly submitted to a popular referendum if it is not approved by two-thirds of the members of both chambers. While it claims to ensure the continuity of governments – a known weak point of the Italian political system - it undermines the very foundation of parliamentary representation: the party system. Breathing the spirit of plebiscitary populism, this misguided reform, while seemingly looking towards Berlin for inspiration, risks in a worst-case scenario creating an atmosphere reminiscent of Capitol Hill on a fateful day a few years ago. Continue reading >>
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09 November 2022
Meloni’s Illiberal Anti-Rave Law
Only ten days after it was sworn in and a week after it received the confidence vote from the Parliament, the new Italian government led by Giorgia Meloni presented its first decree-law containing numerous provisions on a variety of issues: health, justice, and security. The decree-law was the first legislative act presented by the new radical right-wing government. Members of the opposition argued that the decree, in particular the anti-rave norm, is a danger to the freedom of assembly of the Italian citizens and that is a law that Putin could have written. Continue reading >>
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