Italy's PM Matteo Renzi Wins Second Confidence Vote on Electoral Law

Rome: Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi won the second of three confidence votes on a fiercely contested new electoral law today, defying opposition parties and dissidents within his own Democratic Party (PD).

The bill, which has been under discussion in parliament for more than a year, is a central part of Renzi's agenda of political and economic reforms.

The confidence motion passed with 350 votes in favour and 193 against. As in the first vote on Wednesday, around 38 members of the centre-left PD, including some of the most senior members of the party's old guard, refused to cast a ballot.

The new electoral law, which would come into effect in July next year, is based on proportional representation, but awards a heavy majority to the winning party or coalition, with the aim of ensuring that a clear victor emerges.

Opposition parties and PD dissidents say that, in tandem with a constitutional reform abolishing the Senate as an elected chamber, it will hand too much power to the winning party, and therefore undermines democracy.

They are even more furious about Renzi's decision to force the bill through in confidence votes, which oblige parliament to either vote in favour or bring down the government.

Renzi says the reform is vital to give Italy more stable and efficient government, but it has many critics, even among commentators not associated with the opposition parties in parliament.

Ferruccio de Bortoli, outgoing director of the mainstream Corriere della Sera, Italy's most influential newspaper, wrote on Thursday that he hoped President Sergio Mattarella would refuse to sign the bill, preventing it becoming law.

Another confidence vote was due later today on a separate article in the bill before a final vote next week to bring the whole package into law. That final vote is not a confidence vote, but could present a greater threat to Renzi.

This is because, unlike the confidence votes, it will be held by secret ballot, allowing PD lawmakers who are unhappy with the bill to oppose it without revealing their identity and risking reprisals from their leader.

Renzi has said his 15-month-old government will fall if the electoral reform does not pass.