Without electoral law, as Zingaretti and Di Maio try to give Salvini full powers

It is curious that the Democratic Party responds to Matteo Renzi’s threats to open a government crisis by threatening elections. Shortly before the referendum three months ago – the regrettable referendum that reduced deputies from 630 to 400 and senators from 315 to 200 – Democratic Party Secretary Nicola Zingaretti had in fact deemed the reform dangerous if he did not take action. to the electoral law. Here at HuffPost we have wondered and wondered how it is possible to support a dangerous reform to the Constitution, as a consequence of one electoral law or another, since electoral laws are ordinary and can be changed by any majority with a snap of the fingers. We didn’t get any response, but hey, it’s not important that you reply to us.

The matter was so serious that it led Zingaretti to the recklessness of asking for the approval of the new voting system in August, at least in one of the two houses. A naive spirit would have welcomed it as a mockery, but since we are not immune to the obligation to consider Zingaretti a serious person, we have welcomed it as a sign of urgency. And furthermore, in the aftermath of the referendum, the entire majority (those were the times when victory over the virus was proclaimed and there was still time to confront the Constitution) mobilized to design the famous counterweights.

Tap to take a small step back. The reduction of parliamentary representation had been proposed by the Five Leagues government, and the Democratic Party had opposed it with democratic vigor. The vigor weakened with the passage of the Democratic Party in the majority in the place of Matteo Salvini: cutting the caste, this is the indispensable condition that Luigi Di Maio and the troops mark. Ok, let’s cut the caste, said the Democratic Party. But we need counterweights. The first fundamental counterweight, to annul the egalitarian bicameralism (about such a reform, fewer parliamentarians and goodbye to bicameralism, we would have nothing to complain about). But the five stars love bicameralism and therefore nothing to do. The discussion has been hackneyed for months, started down, down to the esotericity of entrusting Republican salvation to a rewritten electoral law. Which, however, did not arrive either before the referendum or immediately after, nor can we see its appearance today, the first day of January 2021, while the Democratic Party sees no other outcome to the crisis than the vote, with the old electoral law and the Constitution in danger. Curious, huh? (Not to mention the rest of the resources: separate functions for the Chamber and the Senate, and joint sessions of deputies and senators for high moments of democracy, such as confidence in executive and budget discussions, which have remained in the stage of edifying philosophical speculation).

If you are passionate about details, Federica Fantozzi wrote it here wisely, but in a nutshell, the electoral law designed to save the Constitution is proportional. And proportional laws establish a barrier, that is, a threshold, in our case 5 or 3 per cent, below which a party does not obtain parliamentarians. Clearly, with Renzi reduced to percentages that would have depressed Clemente Mastella, we can’t talk about that. And not so much with Liberi e Uguali, the government’s left margin. Meanwhile, the opposition enjoys the fun: in those places the current electoral law (Rosatellum) is fine because it guarantees Meloni and Salvini a broad and secure victory. Based on the simulations, with the current polls and the majority premium, the right wing can cultivate the ambition to pocket 66 percent of MPs and with 66 percent, listen, any government rewrites the Constitution with a bang. It is not bad that this time the law benefits, it is always bad and in any case. But it is particularly surreal that the government born to remedy the full powers invoked by Salvini has devised the instrument to deliver them with the bow.

Fortunately, it is difficult to vote: pandemic, recovery, etc. At most, we will try to replace Giuseppe Conte, but this is another matter. There is time between now and 2023 to prevent the Most Beautiful in the World from becoming one that is awarded to the first to pass.