Italian premier meets opposition leaders on constitutional reforms

ROME

Italy’s prime minister on Tuesday started meetings with opposition leaders to discuss her far-right government’s plans to overhaul the country’s Constitution, aiming to ensure more political stability and possibly stronger powers for the premier.

Giorgia Meloni’s talks kicked off on Tuesday morning with former Premier Giuseppe Conte, the leader of the 5-Star Movement, followed by other opposition leaders, and culminating with Elly Schlein, the new head of the center-left Democratic Party – her first meeting with the premier.

Since her election campaign, Meloni has pledged to introduce constitutional reforms that could guarantee a longer duration to Italy’s notoriously short-lived governments and a new balance of powers between the prime minister, president, and parliament.

One of the possible reforms pushed by the Italian right is a semi-presidential system similar to the current one in France.

Ahead of Tuesday’s talks, Meloni said she was eager to press ahead with her reform plan with the support of opposition parties, but she also made clear that she would move forward anyway if they refuse to cooperate.

"We intend to listen carefully to every proposal and any criticism during what we consider an important discussion for our democracy and in order to approve measures that cannot be postponed for the good of the citizens and the nation," Meloni said.

However, her first meeting with 5-Star leader Conte failed to produce any apparent agreement on the content of the reforms.

“We are aware that the problem of government instability has to be addressed, but a shared solution did not emerge during this meeting,” Conte told reporters after his talks with Meloni.

“The general framework has to remain balanced. It can’t put down the role of parliament in the mediating process and can’t diminish the role of the president of the republic.”

By law, any change to the Italian Constitution requires a two-thirds majority in both houses of parliament. If it fails to do so, a so-called “confirmatory” referendum is required.

Though it won a strong majority in parliament in last September's elections, the conservative coalition headed by Meloni did not secure the crucial two-thirds majority in both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies that would have allowed it to reform the Constitution without facing any resistance.

Italy's current parliamentary system, specifically designed to thwart the rise of authoritarian governments after two decades of fascist rule, makes it almost impossible for any party to win a majority by itself.

A previous referendum on constitutional changes proposed by then-Premier and center-left leader Matteo Renzi failed in 2016, leading to his resignation, while a referendum on other changes, including beefing up presidential powers, proposed by then-Premier Silvio Berlusconi, also failed in 2006.