A political blow to the Italian prime minister: a surprising defeat for Maloney

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Maloney suffered a severe political blow yesterday after the Italian Parliament rejected a key clause in the electoral reform promoted by her party. The vote, held ahead of the expected general elections next year, is seen as an injury to Maloney’s position and even raises questions about the extent of her control over the coalition.

The House of Representatives in Italy is currently discussing the reform of the electoral system, which includes a transition to a full proportional representation system along with awarding a bonus in seats to the coalition that wins the elections.

As part of the discussions, a proposal by the “Brothers of Italy” party, headed by Maloney, was put to the vote to restore the preferred voting system, which allows voters to choose certain candidates from the party lists. However, in a secret vote, the proposal was rejected by a small majority of 188 opponents against 187 supporters.

The result was particularly surprising because Maloney’s two main partners in the coalition, the “League” parties, led by Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, and “Forza Italia”, led by Foreign Minister Antonio Tiani, announced in advance that they would support the move. Despite this, the proposal was defeated, indicating that at least some of the coalition members voted against the government’s position.

The opposition did not hide their satisfaction with the result. The center-left parties accused Maloney of trying to change the election laws ahead of next year’s elections to ensure her continued rule.

After the vote, the opposition claimed that the result proves that Maloney no longer fully controls her parliamentary majority. Some of the opposition parties even went so far as to call on the Prime Minister to resign following the failure.

This is not the first political blow that Maloney has suffered in recent months, after the collapse of her legal reform initiative a few months ago. Maloney’s government went to a public referendum on the question of whether to separate the roles of prosecutors and judges in the country, in a move that over time became very much identified with Maloney herself. Despite this, the minimum support for the move was not achieved and the reform collapsed. This was the first sign of Maloney’s political weakness, and since then it is evident that she is having trouble recovering.

In addition to the political shocks, Maloney entered into a tense and publicized confrontation with Trump in recent weeks, which started against the background of his criticism of Italy and European countries and their lack of aid for the war against Iran. The confrontation escalated over time, until it recently exploded with Trump’s claim that Maloney “begged” for a picture with him as part of the G7 summit in France – a claim to which Maloney responded by saying: “Neither I nor Italy are begging, ever.”