Electoral law, the Senate removes the threshold for the majority bonus and raises the signature requirement for new lists

On 11 September 2026 the Senate Chamber approved with 87 votes in favour the reworked amendment first signed by Fratelli d’Italia senator Antonella Zedda. The text removes any threshold for a list’s votes to contribute to the tally counting towards the majority bonus set at 42 percent: even the smaller parties in a coalition therefore contribute to the sum that determines the allocation of the bonus.

The newspaper wrote about this on 10 September, when the Chamber had rejected the constitutionality objections and the centre-right sherpas’ summit had confirmed the 42 percent threshold. The point left open at the time — the so-called anti-fragmentation rule — is now closed in the opposite direction to that written at the Chamber of Deputies: the threshold disappears.

The second content of the amendment concerns access to the competition. Those wishing to present a list without having parliamentary representation will have to collect at least 6,000 signatures in each constituency, with a cap of 7,000: previously 1,500 were sufficient. Parties with two parliamentary groups remain exempt from the collection, as do those who formed at least one group by 31 December 2025, a condition affecting Italia Viva and Azione; for those with only one component the requirement remains between 1,500 and 2,000 signatures. The required territorial extension also changes: the number of constituencies in which lists must be presented rises from one third to one half.

The two measures work in different directions on the minor parties. The first makes it advantageous for coalitions to bring on board lists that, alone, would not clear a threshold; the second makes it more burdensome to run for those who do not already have a parliamentary structure behind them. For Peppe De Cristofaro, Avs group leader and president of the Mixed group in the Senate, this is “an anti-democratic and unconstitutional rule that, if possible, makes an already bad law even worse”. Democratic Party secretary Elly Schlein announced that the opposition parties “will make a stand”. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, on the other hand, defends the overall framework: “Italians will have the chance to choose the coalition, the premier, the programme, the parliamentarian”.

Yesterday’s vote completes a passage begun the previous day. On 10 September the Chamber had approved with 97 yes, 67 no and 2 abstentions the centre-right’s joint amendment on preferences: blocked list leaders and up to three preferences that can be expressed, while the Pd’s proposal to introduce pure preferences had been rejected. The two votes, taken together, define how the voter fills in the ballot and how the votes are added up for the bonus.

The timetable remains the one already set: final vote in the Senate on 15 September, then back to the Chamber of Deputies for the third reading starting 28 September. Since the text approved by the Senate modifies the one passed at Montecitorio — the anti-fragmentation threshold existed and now no longer does — the Chamber’s reading is not a procedural formality: it must rule on the changed parts. Between now and 15 September the Senate Chamber still has to finish off the remaining amendments before the vote on the bill as a whole.