The Italian Chamber of Deputies rejected an amendment to the government’s electoral reform bill that would have allowed voters to express up to three preferences for individual candidates on party lists. The secret ballot on 14 July ended 188 votes against and 187 in favour, with roughly 30 to 40 deputies from the ruling centre-right coalition voting contrary to the official line. The amendment had been tabled by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy (FdI) together with the smaller Noi Moderati and UDC, and its defeat marks the most significant parliamentary setback for the executive since it took office in 2022.

In the immediate aftermath, Meloni wrote on social media that “the swamp has won again” and that “a reflection is needed” after coalition votes went missing. Opposition parties—the Democratic Party, the Five Star Movement and the Green-Left Alliance—hailed the result as proof that the government no longer commands a reliable majority and demanded Meloni’s resignation or early elections. Government ministers, however, described the vote as an isolated incident. The minister for parliamentary relations, Luca Ciriani, attributed the defections to an “instinct of self-preservation” among deputies uneasy with preference voting, while Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani of Forza Italia called it an “accident along the way.”

The episode has laid bare long-simmering tensions within the coalition over the electoral reform, known as the Stabilicum. The bill introduces a proportional system with a majority bonus of 70 seats in the Chamber and 35 in the Senate for any list or coalition that wins at least 42 percent of the vote, and it requires pre-election coalitions to name a common prime ministerial candidate. According to political analysts in Rome, the preference amendment was resisted by many parliamentarians in the junior coalition partners—the League and Forza Italia—who feared it would weaken party control over candidate selection and, in the view of some female deputies, undermine gender representation. The following day, a separate preference amendment proposed by the far-right Futuro Nazionale party of Roberto Vannacci was also rejected, with FdI voting in favour while the League and Forza Italia opposed it, further exposing the internal divisions.

Viewed from European capitals, the setback complicates Meloni’s effort to project an image of stable, disciplined governance ahead of the 2027 general election. The reform itself remains on track: the Chamber is expected to approve the bill in a final vote on 16 July, after which it will move to the Senate. The president of the Senate, Ignazio La Russa of FdI, has signalled that the upper house could reintroduce preference voting, as its rules do not permit secret ballots on such matters. For now, the government insists it will press ahead, but the vote has forced an open debate about the coalition’s cohesion and the durability of Meloni’s parliamentary majority.