4 March 2018 is the official date of the general election. The vote is held to elect the new parliament, made up of deputies and senators. There are also regional elections in Lazio and Lombardia. What to know to arrive prepared for the appointment.
The LifeGate editorial team is following the event with an election live blog starting at 18:00. We look forward to seeing you all to comment together in on the long marathon. Happy voting to everyone.
Sunday 4 March, from 07:00 to 23:00, Italy goes to the polls to elect the new parliament, made up of deputies (630) and senators (315, plus 5 life senators). In the regions of Lombardia and Lazio, 4 March also sees votes to renew regional presidents and regional councils. The elected parliamentarians will subsequently need to reach an agreement and a majority in order to choose and vote for the new government that will lead the country for the next five years, until 2023.
At least in theory — that is, setting aside government crises or parliamentary votes of no confidence, which are very common in Italy. The prime minister, or President of the Council of Ministers, is also first appointed by the President of the Republic and then receives a vote of confidence from parliamentarians. He or she is therefore not elected directly by the people.
"The Government must have the confidence of both Houses" (Article 94 of the Constitution)
In the days following the election, the President of the Republic — currently Sergio Mattarella — summons the representatives of the parliamentary groups elected by citizens to the Quirinale, in order to determine which government, backed by which party or coalition of parties (the so-called parliamentary majority), can command the numbers to win the confidence of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic and, ultimately, govern.
A simple majority in both houses is sufficient to obtain a confidence vote: one more than half of those present in the chamber, both in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Senate, because Italy operates under perfect bicameralism — that is, the two branches of parliament have equal powers. For this reason, the leader of the party or coalition that received the most votes is not necessarily the one tasked with forming a new government.
"The President of the Republic appoints the President of the Council of Ministers and, on his proposal, the ministers" (Article 92 of the Constitution)
The Italian people do not directly elect the government because Italy is a parliamentary republic and, as our Constitution states, no parliamentarian is obliged to vote confidence in one government rather than another, because he or she "exercises their functions without a binding mandate" (Article 67 of the Constitution). Every parliamentarian is free to vote according to their conscience — that is, they are not bound to follow the instructions of any principal, whether that might be the party for which they were elected or Italian citizens themselves. This, in short, is why there is no government (directly) elected by citizens.
The names of leaders featured on party symbols often serve only to win over people who place their trust in that particular politician. This is the case, for example, with Silvio Berlusconi, who, despite actively participating in the election campaign, cannot stand as a candidate for the office of deputy or senator under the provisions of the legge Severino, even though his surname has been included on the symbol of his party, Forza Italia.
For this reason, although it is true that Italians do not directly elect the government, they are nonetheless led to form certain expectations, given that both this and recent election campaigns have been marked by a wave of personalisation of the vote — rather as happens in the United States or France, where presidents are elected directly and must win support on the strength of their own personalities. A further push in this direction has come from social networks, where the official profiles of leaders such as Pietro Grasso or Matteo Salvini attract far more followers than the profiles of the parties they lead.
This photo gallery features all the symbols and logos of the parties and lists standing in the general election on 4 March.
On Sunday 4 March every citizen will receive two ballot papers, one for the Chamber and one for the Senate (for those who have turned 25, plus a third in constituencies where regional elections are also being held). The electoral law adopted in October, also known as the Rosatellum (named after the deputy who championed it, Ettore Rosato), is a hybrid law based on a mixed seat-allocation system, two-thirds proportional and one-third majoritarian. This means that one third of the total seats (232 for the Chamber and 102 for the Senate) are allocated using the majoritarian method in single-member constituencies, that is, constituencies where the candidate who obtains even just one more vote than their rivals is automatically elected.
Read also: 2018 general election, information on how to vote from abroad
The electoral law favours the formation of coalitions. The electoral threshold for smaller parties is in fact 3 per cent, and 10 per cent for coalitions. If a party that is part of a coalition reaches a percentage of between 1 and 3 per cent, it obtains no seats, but its parliamentary share is distributed among its allies. The votes are therefore not lost. The Senate is an exception, where a party can elect a senator even without surpassing 3 per cent at national level, provided it manages to exceed the 20 per cent threshold in a single region. Candidates cannot be chosen by voters; they have been decided by the parties, which worked to draw up closed lists. Each candidate may stand in only one single-member constituency, but in up to five proportional constituencies.
On the ballot paper a maximum of two crosses may be made: one on the name of the candidate in the single-member constituency and the other on one of the lists supporting them, that is, the lists that form part of the coalition of parties. The coalition appears on the ballot paper as belonging to a single area. It is therefore not possible to split one's vote, as the ballot would be invalid. It is not possible — for example — to vote for a centre-left candidate and a centre-right list appearing in a different area on the ballot paper.
A legislature — this being the proper term for a parliamentary term — lasts five years, so elections are held every five years. Since the Constitution came into force, however, there have been 17 legislatures. More than you would get by dividing by five the 70 years that separate us from the inauguration of the first legislature in 1948. This means that early elections have often been called. Legislatures have reached their natural end only nine times, with an average duration of four years. There have been 64 governments, and none has ever lasted an entire legislature, but Silvio Berlusconi served as President of the Council of Ministers throughout the fourteenth legislature (from 2001 to 2006), albeit leading two distinct governments.
A few weeks before the general election, the parties — and above all the coalitions — published their electoral programmes. We focused on the points and chapters dedicated to both environmental and social sustainability: from land to waste management, from renewable energy to human rights, from environmental protection to the fight against global warming. You can find our in-depth analysis here.
In the weeks leading up to the general election, polling institutes conduct surveys and polls on samples that are more or less reliable and representative of the Ita