In Italy, the President of the Republic begins consultations at the Quirinal, the official residence, to then ask Giorgia Meloni to form a government. She would thus become the first woman in Italian history to become President of the Council. And she will be able to apply the main lines of her program.
Arrived at the top of legislative elections of 25 September, driven by the victory of the conservative coalition bringing together the post-fascist party Fratelli d’Italia, the League by Matteo Salvini and Forza Italia by Silvio Berlusconi, the probable future Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni already has a fairly fixed idea of the role of the President – today guarantor: she wants him to be elected by universal suffrage from now on. However, for that, it must change the Constitution… and that does not please everyone.
>> Elections in Italy: who is Giorgia Meloni, the far-right leader who already sees herself “guiding the government”?
Thus, for Giorgia Meloni, French-style semi-presidentialism is the solution to restore the confidence of citizens. It will also give stability to Italy: “On average, we change governments every two years… This undermines our international credibility, our ability to weigh in Europe and in large organizationsshe pleads. So I would like a system that guarantees a link between the voter and the elected, and of course, stability: whoever wins the election knows that he will be in power for 5 years to carry out his project.
On the right, among its allies, everyone is in favor of it; Silvio Berlusconi in mind, since he spoke about it the first time in 1995. But the former Prime Minister has, today, an idea in mind. “If the reform comes into force, I think it would be necessary for President Mattarella to resign in order to directly elect a new president… and it could still be him“, tackle He rides. Except that Sergio Mattarella was already not a candidate for a second term.
“Only power stops power!”
It is therefore the full powers that the right is aiming for today, believes the left. Enrico Letta, of the Democratic Party, does not want to change the Constitution: “Our country has a Constitution resulting from the Constituent Assembly, daughter of the Resistance and anti-fascism…. This Constitution has saved Italy for the past 75 years: the system has worked! So, to say today that we must give full powers with presidentialism because the system does not work, I’m sorry but I don’t find that convincing…“, he sweeps.
>> Italy: what contains the program of Giorgia Meloni, the far-right leader who could become Prime Minister
What, indeed, of counter-powers? This is the fear of Gaetano Azzariti, professor of constitutional law at La Sapienza University in Rome: “Montesquieu not only spoke of the separation of powers, but he also said that only power stops power! The Italian problem is that we have a strong government and a weak parliament, but a president who rebalances the situation. If we lose the President of the Republic as a guarantor and we do not strengthen Parliament. Well, in Italy it would be a risk!“A former president of the Constitutional Court fears an authoritarian regime on the model of that of Viktor Orbán, the Prime Minister of Hungary.