The examination of the amendments to the electoral law begins in the Constitutional Affairs commission in the Chamber, and it is immediately chaos. The secretary of the Democratic Party, Matteo Renzi, has convinced his deputies to withdraw the correction proposals that do not form part of the agreement reached with Silvio Berlusconi. An opening had arrived from Forza Italia in the first place, which however was denied within a few hours.
In a face-to-face meeting in Rome with the Democratic secretary, Denis Verdini allegedly declared Fi's willingness to discuss raising the threshold set for access to the majority bonus from 35 to 38%. Immediately after the news spread, the hawks (Renato Brunetta, Daniela Santanchè and Verdini himself) hurried to deny it.
The Knight wants to play everything in the first round and believes that the objective would be impossible to achieve with a quorum higher than 35%. There is no doubt, however, about the no to the hypothesis of bringing the threshold from 5 to 4% for parties that are part of coalitions.
The arrival of the reform in the Chamber is scheduled for January 29, but, according to Forza Italia, it could be postponed due to the "problems of the Democratic Party". The decision on any postponement will be made tomorrow by the conference of group leaders.
On the delegation to the government for the definition of the constituencies, Renzi would have explained to the Pd deputies, the negotiation with Forza Italia, which asks for parliamentary matters to remain, would still be open. As for the idea of the primaries for the choice of parliamentary candidates, immediately rejected by the Berlusconians, Renzi would have asked to maintain the amendment, but to transform the consultation from mandatory to optional.
Instead, the "save-Lega" amendment arrives from the forced deputies: a sort of derogation from the barrier threshold on a territorial basis: "Those parties will be able to enter Parliament which, despite not having exceeded the 5% threshold - reads the proposal edit – , however they obtained an average of at least 7% of the votes in seven constituencies”.
