Nazareno Pact

Electoral reform

The first point of the agreement concerned the modification of the Italian electoral system, which was governed until then by the law authored by Roberto Calderoli during the third Berlusconi government, best known as Porcellum,^[14] which the Constitutional Court had declared partially unconstitutional on 15 January 2014.^{[nb 1]} The new law was immediately renamed Italicum and presented to the press by Renzi at the end of the PD national assembly on 20 January.^[9]

Italicum was a mixed electoral system influenced by Italian mayoralty elections (a system that Renzi called the "Mayor of Italy" model), the Spanish model,^[15][16][17] and Mattarellum, with the main purpose being that of ensuring governing stability and a clear majority.^[18][19][20] The initial agreement envisaged a corrected proportional representation based on political coalitions, with a majority bonus of 15% if one of the coalitions exceeded 35% of the vote, with a maximum limit of 55%. If neither coalition reached the 35% threshold, a runoff election would be held between the two coalitions with the most votes to assign a bonus that would allow the winning coalition to exceed 50% of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies. Two electoral thresholds were also established for entering Parliament: 5% for coalition parties and 8% for political parties running alone. In this first draft, the electoral districts were small to medium-sized multi-member constituencies, with each party presenting lists of three to six candidates. As the party-list system was based around closed lists, voters were not allowed to directly choose which candidate to vote for.^[21]

Following numerous objections from the other majority parties, the bill was amended before being presented to Parliament. The second draft, agreed upon by telephone between the two political leaders, included some adjustments to the thresholds but not to the underlying philosophy: the threshold for access to the majority bonus was increased from 35% to 37%, while the electoral threshold for coalition parties was lowered to 4.5%.^[22] The law as drafted was approved by the Chamber of Deputies on 12 March with 365 votes in favour, 156 against, and 40 abstentions. The law approved by the Chamber of Deputies did not establish rules for the Senate of the Republic with the prospect of its indirect election.^[23]

The new version of Italicum, which was so radically changed from the first that it was renamed Italicum 2.0, was approved by the Senate of the Republic on 27 January 2015 with the decisive support from FI as the PD minority walked out of the chamber. In February 2015, following the election of Mattarella as president of Italy and the subsequent end of the Nazareno Pact, and due to Renzi's 17 requests to amend Italicum, FI called it an authoritarian and unconstitutional law and announced its vote against it in its third reading. The law was definitively approved on 4 May 2015 with the recourse to a vote of confidence;^[24] however, it was never applied in any electoral consultation. In January 2017, the Consitutional Court ruled that it was partially unconstitutional,^{[25][nb 2]} and was then completely repealed in November 2017 following the approval of the Rosatellum, the electoral law named after the PD deputy Ettore Rosato.^[26]

Constitutional reform

The second point of the Nazareno Pact concerned a constitutional reform aimed at overcoming perfect bicameralism and modifying Title V, which regulates the relationship between the state and the regions of Italy. These reforms were discussed in a second meeting between Renzi and Berlusconi held on 14 April at Chigi Palace.^[27] The bill called for a reduction in the number of senators from 315 to 100. These would no longer be directly elected but rather appointed by the regional councils and would include 74 regional councillors, 21 mayors, and 5 distinguished figures appointed by the Italian President. The new Senate would have fewer powers as it would no longer be able to vote on confidence in incumbent governments and would have the primary role of "liaison between the state and the other constituent bodies of the Republic", namely the regions and municipalities of Italy. It would have continued to vote on constitutional reforms and laws, laws on popular referendums, the electoral laws local governments, and family, marriage, and health laws, as well as the ratification of international treaties. It could also have had a consultative role on laws presented to the Chamber of Deputies and on the budget law, proposing amendments that would then be voted on by the Chamber of Deputies. Title V, which divides legislative powers between the state and the regions, was also amended, eliminating concurrent jurisdiction.^[28]

The reform proposal, bitterly opposed by the parliamentary opposition and many jurists, was approved with a majority of less than two-thirds of the members of each chamber. Consequently, as required by Article 138 of the Constitution, the measure was not directly promulgated, as the possibility of requesting a referendum to submit it to the voters' judgment was provided for. The popular consultation, requested both on parliamentary initiative and through a collection of signatures, was scheduled for 4 December 2016;^[29] unlike other types of referendums, a quorum regarding voter turnout is not required for constitutional referendums.^{[nb 3]} The referendum saw a high turnout, equal to 65.47% of voters, and a clear affirmation of the votes against, equal to 59.12% of valid votes. As a result, the reform (named after Renzi and Maria Elena Boschi but agreed as part of the Nazareno Pact) did not come into force.^[30] Moreover, as a consequence of the unfavourable outcome of the referendum, Renzi resigned as Prime Minister.^[31][32]