Italy's Meloni suffers surprise setback in close vote on electoral reform

Italy's Giorgia Meloni coalition government has lost a crucial vote on an amendment to electoral reform - a significant setback ahead of next year's general election.In a secret ballot in Italy's lower house of parliament on Wednesday evening, MPs rejected a proposal spearheaded by her party, Italy" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="40382" data-entity-type="organization">Brothers of Italy (FdI), by 188 votes to 187 - indicating that several of Meloni's MPs voted against the amendment. In an angry post on social media after the vote, she said the result had been "a missed opportunity for Italians". "The opposition celebrating as if they had won the World Cup, for preventing citizens from choosing their parliamentarians says it all," she added, referencing jubilant scenes in parliament by opposition parties.Meloni did not address calls from the opposition to resign and bring forward the general election, currently planned for autumn 2027.The proposed reform would see Italy move to a fully proportional system which would award a bonus to the party or coalition with the largest share of the vote, even if they fall short of a majority.Coalitions would also be required to agree on a common platform and a single prime ministerial candidate - something that many parties, which tend to campaign separately, would find unpalatable.The amendment that was rejected in Tuesday's vote was a provision on preference voting, allowing voters to choose preferred candidates from a list. Although that element was rejected, the government can continue to press ahead with the rest of the electoral reform.