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Critics of the proposed bill say it is designed to keep parties in power.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was accused of trying to manipulate the upcoming elections in her favor after her governing coalition reached a late-night deal on a new electoral law.
Coalition parties say the bill, which regulates how seats are divided after elections, would give the winner a strong labor majority and prevent technocratic governments. But critics of the law say it is designed to strengthen Meloni's government and keep the left out of power.
"Their priority, their only concern is to guarantee their positions, by changing the law in an unacceptable way," the center-left opposition Democratic Party said in a statement.
The opposition was caught off guard when Meloni's Brothers of Italy party, along with its coalition partners Forza Italia and the League, negotiated an agreement on the law, bypassing dialogue with the opposition.
The agreement comes at a turbulent time for Italy's political landscape, with the left struggling to build a coalition and the right under pressure from a new far-right party, Futuro Nazionale, which was formed after a split in the League.
Pollsters and analysts have speculated about possible new elections after a constitutional referendum in March, with the economy expected to take a turn for the worse in 2026 as the stimulus effect from the EU's post-pandemic Recovery Fund fades.
Analysis by polling agency You Trend, published on Friday, predicted that the right-wing coalition would receive 46 percent of the vote under the current system, which would give it 57 percent of the seats if this new bill is passed.
Riccardo Magi of the centrist +Europa party called the bill manipulative and "unsustainable" and said on Facebook that the coalition is treating the law "like a suit they want to fit to their own measures to stay in power."
Angelo Bonelli of the Green and Left Alliance said in a statement that this was a “clear attempt to manipulate the upcoming elections” and indicated that the government feared it would lose authority if it lost the referendum next month.
The government is “ready to engage with everyone to improve the text,” Giovanni Donzelli, a Brothers of Italy MP and Meloni’s representative in the negotiations, told reporters outside parliament on Thursday.
The proposed bill would scrap the majority-voting seats, which currently make up a third of those available in Italy's parliament, in favor of a fully proportional system. In the 2022 elections, the right won more than 80 percent of these seats, with their coalition coalescing behind single candidates, while the left's vote was fragmented.
The main point is that a group of parties securing over 40 percent of the vote would receive a bonus of 70 seats in the Lower House and 35 seats in the Senate, thus ensuring a stable parliamentary majority.
Representatives of Forza Italia and Brothers of Italy did not respond to requests for comment. The Lega declined to comment.
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