Op-Ed: How could Italy’s new government change the constitution?

The hard-right coalition, led by the post-fascist Brothers of Italy in partnership with the populist League and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, swept to victory with 44 percent of the vote, giving them a majority in both houses of parliament. [...] The group’s programme includes a number of policies that are typical of right-wing parties, including tightening immigration controls, cracking down on crime, reforming Italy’s welfare system, and lowering taxes. [...] Though it came close, the coalition didn’t win the crucial supermajority of two thirds of the seats in both the senate and the lower house that would have allowed it to reform the constitution without encountering any obstacles. But the new government could hold a referendum on [changing to a presidential system], handing the decision over to voters. It was through this mechanism that Italians voted in 2020 to reduce their total number of parliamentarians by one third. [...] Besides overhauling the political system, it’s also possible that a Eurosceptic Meloni-led government could propose further constitutional reforms to reconfigure Italy’s relationship with the EU.
Read the full article here: The Local