After a tiring parliamentary process, first at the Bicameral, then in the classroom, on 3 and 4 August the new electoral laws were definitively approved: they respected the popular indication in favor of the single-member majority system, but also accepted the indications of the parties for a quota from assign proportionally. It was possible to avoid the obstruction of the MSI with the commitment to proceed quickly with the approval of the constitutional law that introduces the vote (and twenty seats in the Chamber and ten in the Senate) for Italians abroad.
Two ballots will be voted on for the Chamber. With the first, 475 deputies (75%) will be elected with the single-member system in a single round without ballot; the other 155 will be elected with another ballot box with the proportional system on a blocked list, without the possibility of giving preferences; only parties that report at least 4% of the votes will be able to access the division of votes; to accentuate proportionality and not favor the larger parties, the parties that have won in the single-member constituencies are separated – from the votes obtained with the proportional ballot – as many votes as were obtained by the candidates who came second in those constituencies (plus one).
For the Senate, 75% of the seats, or 232 senators, will be elected with the uninominal system, the other 25% with the proportional recovery which will effectively exclude the parties that have not obtained at least 10% of the votes. On the card each name will be flanked by the indication of the party that supports it. The spin-off was also introduced in the Senate, on the basis of which the votes obtained by the elected candidates are subtracted from the proportional share. Scalfaro immediately promulgated the two laws, while a four-month delegation was granted to the government to define the new constituencies.
According to aceinland, new political elections thus became possible starting from the end of December. Some parties, including Lega and PDS, began talking about elections to be held as soon as possible, by spring 1994. Others, such as the DC, aimed to postpone them. However, the electoral perspective had already begun to influence the behavior of all political forces.
The Christian Democratic Constituent Assembly meeting in Rome at the end of July had granted full powers for the renewal to the secretary Martinazzoli, based on the slogan ” renew without denying ”. Martinazzoli proposed to change the name of the party back to its original denomination, ” Popular Party ”; it accentuated the antagonism towards the League; he did not rule out openings to the PDS as long as he renounced his hegemonic tendencies. The party form was also discussed, hypothesizing an open body without membership, based on circles, regionalized.
The League loudly called for immediate elections, waving the flag of federalism, but often resorting to the threat of fiscal and political separatism. The PDS continued to weave alliances to its right and its left also in view of the municipal elections scheduled for November 1993 in some important cities including Rome, Naples and Palermo. At the same time he was busy defending himself from the threat of being involved in tangentopoli. Without clearly addressing the issue of illicit financing, he did not deny individual episodes, but tenaciously insisted on excluding party involvement in the bribe system.
The new electoral system threatened the secular and socialist parties with extinction. In particular, the PSI appeared disbanded and divided, and by the end of May Benvenuto had resigned, giving the secretariat to O. Del Turco. The new formation of the Democratic Alliance also appeared to be in difficulty, which brought together political and intellectual exponents of various origins, from the PLI to the PDS to the Segni group. Despite some successes in the municipalities in June, she appeared uncertain in the face of the obstacles placed by the other parties, and in particular by the PDS, to the creation of a single reform camp. The postponement of the political elections that many had foreseen by 1993 seemed to take away space for groups less rooted in the social fabric.
Without an electoral political check and pending the celebration of the criminal trials, at the beginning of autumn the situation appeared suspended, with the limit of entrusting the investigating magistracy alone with the task of keeping the waiting for the new alive.
