Italy Weighs Giving Bonus Seats to Election Winners

“Italian lawmakers on Thursday prepared to vote on a controversial new law that would award bonus seats in Parliament to election winners, a move supporters say will help prevent governments from collapsing and detractors denounce as unconstitutional and antidemocratic,” the New York Times reports.

“Championed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has threatened to resign should it not pass, the new law would give a bonus to the winning party or coalition of an election: 70 seats in the lower house of Parliament and 35 in the Senate, provided the party or coalition reaches 42 percent in both houses.”