Italy’s government approves draft constitutional reform

ROME

Italy’s government on Friday approved a draft constitutional reform which would introduce direct election of the heads of governments.

The reform is aimed at tackling the country’s chronic political instability, which brought Italy to have governments lasting an average of one and half years in post-World War II Italy.

“I consider it the mother of all reforms,” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said: “I am very proud of it.”

Meloni blamed the lack of government instability for Italy’s poor economic performance over the last decades, compared with the other major European economies, where governments have been much more stable.

Currently, Italians elect members of parliament, who form coalitions to support governments. In recent years, the country has been mostly ruled by unelected technocrats or different parliamentary alliances emerging from elections.

The reform will have to go through parliament, following a lengthy process, which involves voting in each of the chambers of parliament and potentially a national referendum. The whole process will take more than a year.

The previous attempts to amend the constitution failed, because they did not garner enough parliamentary or popular support.