Blocked majority premium and list leaders are safe, while skip the ballot, as was the forecast on the eve. As regards multiple candidacies (i.e. the possibility for a candidate to present himself simultaneously in 10 constituencies and then choose which seat to occupy, in the event of election in more than one) they remain, but the criterion for choosing the seat becomes that of the draw. The sentence of the Constitutional Court on the Italicum was made to wait for almost 24 hours (that's how long the council chamber lasted, which began on Tuesday afternoon) but it has finally arrived.
The Consulta examined the legitimacy issues raised by 5 courts on the electoral law desired by the Renzi government and therefore said no to the second round between the two best political forces that had failed to exceed the threshold of 40% of the votes in the first round. Having removed the parts rejected by the Court, the law is now ready to be used ("Upon the outcome of the sentence, the electoral law is susceptible to immediate application", reads the official note) and in theory it is possible to go to the vote immediately, even if that of the Senate should be standardized, which currently does not provide for the majority bonus. Therefore, different scenarios open up, which are more or less the same as on the eve, given that the decision was the expected one.
What happens now
The intentions of the secretary of the Pd Matteo Renzi is to go to the vote before June, perhaps by adjusting the electoral law for the Senate - which currently does not provide for the majority bonus - to bring it into line with that of the Chamber, as emerged from the sentence of the Court. The majority bonus, provided for by the previous electoral law (the Mattarellum), was rejected by the Consulta in January 2014 to make way for a proportional system (called Consultellum), whose thresholds are equal to 2% per cent for coalition parties and 4% for non-coalition ones. However, a majority bonus extended to the Senate would not be impossible, because as stated by various jurists "that bonus was declared illegitimate because in that electoral law, the Mattarellum, it was not connected to a reasonable threshold of minimum votes". In Italicum there is this threshold and it is 40%.
Apart from the former prime minister however, not everyone would agree to go to the vote early, by the end of the summer. On the contrary, the postponement party is growing, given that, as is known, the right to a life annuity is triggered for all parliamentarians in the autumn, which is why the legislature could go on until its natural expiry, i.e. 2018. This scenario is the one advocated by a part of the Democratic Party itself, which also pushes for a return to the Mattarellum (a solution that is not unwelcome even to Renzi, as long as there is a vote by June), and by Forza Italia, which would like to work on a new electoral law. On the other hand, part of the opposition, Lega Nord and Movimento 5 Stelle, are pushing for early voting. In each, the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, who plays a key role in the decision, has already hinted that he plans to arrive at the G7 summit in Taormina scheduled for the end of May, which will be the first of the Trump era (and of what will be the new French president, elected a few weeks earlier), with a government in full swing.
The reactions
“There are no more excuses – thundered the leader of the M5S Beppe Grillo -. The Constitutional Court removed the ballot, but left the majority premium to the list at 40%. This is our goal to be able to govern. We will present ourselves to the voters as always without forming alliances with anyone”. “Matteo Renzi and Maria Elena Boschi – added Di Battista -, the law that “should have copied half of Europe” is largely unconstitutional. Shame on you and retire."
Giorgia Meloni also intervened on the sentence: "Now that we also have an electoral law, there are no more excuses: on Saturday 28 January, everyone in the square in Rome to ask for elections immediately". So on Twitter the leader of the League Matteo Salvini: “Immediately applicable electoral law, says the Consulta. There are no more excuses: word to the Italians!! If you agree, relaunch #votonow”.
Part of the Pd also follows the same line, as evidenced by the intervention of the group leader in the Chamber Ettore Rosato: “The conditions have been created to go and vote immediately. We strongly relaunch the possibility of converging on the Mattarellum. It's not a matter of time, we need real political availability. We remain on the Mattarellum, otherwise there is the Consultellum. There hasn't been a rejection of the Italicum, the system remains”. More wait-and-see Forza Italy, who through the words of Maurizio Gasparri hopes for the harmonization of the laws of the Chamber and the Senate: "The Consulta has expressed itself, now it is necessary to make an electoral law for the Senate similar to that of the Chamber".
