Electoral law, the Senate rejects amendments against the prime ministerial candidate

The Senate’s Constitutional Affairs committee rejected on September 8, 2026 all amendments submitted by the opposition against the requirement to indicate a candidate for prime minister. This is the point on which discussion had opened following the proposal outlined by the prime minister in Bari, which we wrote about on September 5th: the mechanism remains in the text going to the Chamber for examination.

The next step has a date and time. The text arrives in the Senate Chamber at 10am on September 9th. The committee examination is expected to close without a vote on the mandate to the rapporteur: this means the amendments are not consolidated in the restricted setting and that work on the amendments shifts entirely to the Assembly. On this point, parliamentary reports remain conditional — the closure without a mandate is indicated as a likely outcome, not as an act already completed at the time of publication.

One element, however, is already fixed: the Senate presidency has set the deadline for submitting sub-amendments to amendment 1.6. That amendment, from the majority with Marco Lisei of Fratelli d’Italia as first signatory, had been approved in committee on September 3rd and reintroduces up to three preferences, with blocked list leaders and gender alternation. The fact that sub-amendments are being opened indicates that the section on preferences is not considered final by those who proposed it.

Two issues remain open: preferences, as mentioned, and the runoff. For September 9th a meeting of center-right negotiators is planned on both points, which do not appear to have yet been settled among the majority forces. The meeting falls on the same day the text reaches the Chamber.

The committee chairman and rapporteur Andrea De Priamo has placed the negotiation within a fixed perimeter: “it is obvious that details can be adjusted until the last moment.” The substance of the law, according to his indication, is not under discussion; the methods are.

On the method of this piece: the primary source of facts relating to the vote on the amendments is the work of the Constitutional Affairs committee, an institutional body. The available material includes wire dispatches — Adnkronos and Askanews — and a review of parliamentary proceedings.

What can be measured at present is the timeline. The text moves from committee to the Chamber without the restricted setting closing with a mandate; the opposition has seen its proposals on the indication of the prime ministerial candidate rejected and will be able to re-submit the issues in the Assembly; the majority arrives at the vote with two matters still open internally and a meeting scheduled for the same day. The deadline for sub-amendments to 1.6 has been set by the Senate presidency, and the Chamber session is convened for 10am on September 9th.

Sources: Adnkronos; La Ragione; Legacoop, parliamentary review of September 8, 2026; Ragionieri e Previdenza.