Looking at Berlin, Ending up on Capitol Hill - The Italian Constitutional Reform Plans in Comparative Perspective

Autor: Andrea De Petris
Jazyk: German<br />English
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Verfassungsblog, Iss 2366-7044 (2023)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2366-7044
DOI: 10.59704/4d67dc8c489d93fc
Popis: 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.
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