Electoral law, the Senate approves articles 1 and 5 and postpones the final vote to the 15th

On 14 September the Senate chamber approved article 1 of the electoral law reform and, shortly afterward, article 5. The amendments presented by the opposition were rejected. Examination resumed in the afternoon from article 6: the measure consists of nine articles and the final vote at Palazzo Madama is scheduled for the morning of 15 September.

We wrote about the previous stage on 12 September, when the chamber had approved the reformulated amendment, first signed by Zedda, on thresholds and on the signatures required from new parties.

The most debated content of the day lies in article 5, which exempts from the collection of signatures for the presentation of lists those who had a parliamentary group in at least one of the two Chambers as of 31 December 2025. The date sets a temporal cutoff: the composition of the groups on that day applies, not any subsequent one. The opposition attempted to intervene on the same ground via a different route: the amendment by Democratic Party senator Andrea Giorgis, which would have allowed the collection of signatures digitally with a qualified electronic signature, was rejected. For those not covered by the exemption, only the previously established methods of signature collection therefore remain.

The amendment by senators Meinhard Durnwalder and Julia Unterberger, which redraws the constituencies of the province of Bolzano, was instead passed. It is the only change to the text approved during the day on a proposal by parliamentarians outside the national majority groups.

From the opposition benches, Democratic Party senator Dario Parrini described the intervention on signatures as “a cheat’s move to favor center-right candidates.” Italia Viva senator Enrico Borghi asked the majority to “wait for the ruling of the Constitutional Court before the rule is made operative.” On the follow-up to that request, the material currently available records no response from the majority: it remains an objection filed in the chamber’s records, not a commitment undertaken.

The schedule is the most concrete outcome of the day. If the final vote takes place on 15 September as planned, the text — amended by the Senate compared with the one passed by the Chamber — returns to Palazzo Chigi only in a political sense, not a procedural one: the third reading falls to the deputies, and examination in the Chamber is scheduled from 28 September. Two weeks therefore separate any Senate approval from the resumption of work in the other branch of Parliament. Any further amendment introduced at Montecitorio would reopen the shuttle process.

A caveat regarding timing should be noted: the vote of 15 September is a scheduled expectation, not an accomplished fact, and the conclusion of the examination of articles six through nine depends on the number of amendments still under discussion. The parliamentary work schedule, as has already happened in this same process, can be revised.

At present, then, two verifiable elements stand firm: the Senate has approved articles 1 and 5 with the 31 December 2025 clause on parliamentary groups, and examination in the Chamber is set from 28 September.

Sources: ANSA (coverage of the Senate chamber); Agenzia Nova (parliamentary work schedule).