Italy's Prime Minister Wins Vote on Electoral Reform
- Government won three confidence votes and last secret ballot
- Reform penalizes populist Five Star, now goes to Senate
Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, in Rome, on Oct. 12.
Photographer: Alvaro Padilla/Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni won a vote in parliament on reform of the electoral system, averting the risk of a government crisis and early elections.
Gentiloni’s center-left government won a secret vote in the lower house on Thursday, after three earlier confidence ballots, as it attempts to push through the change. In the final vote, lawmakers’ choices were kept secret which afforded them cover to torpedo the bill. Gentiloni won with 375 lawmakers voting in favor and 215 against.