Editing Politics of Italy (section)

==== Grand coalition governments ====
At different times since his entering the Italian Parliament, [[Silvio Berlusconi]], leader of the centre-right, had repeatedly vowed to stop the "communists", while leftist parties had insisted that they would oust Berlusconi. Thus, despite the fact that the executive branch bears responsibility toward the Parliament, the governments led by Mario Monti (since 2011) and by Enrico Letta (since 2013) were called "unelected governments"<ref>{{cite web|title=Monti names unelected government|url=http://euobserver.com/economic/114299|publisher=EU observer}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=A Berlusconi Reminder as Italy Faces Another Unelected Premier|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/17/world/europe/a-berlusconi-reminder-as-italy-faces-another-unelected-premier.html?_r=0|newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Italy has 4th Government in 3 Years; the Last 3 Unelected|url=http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.it/2014/02/italy-has-4th-government-in-3-years.html|publisher=Mish's Global Economic Trend Analsysis}}</ref> because they won a vote of confidence by a Parliament coalition formed by centre-right and left-right parties that had in turn obtained parliamentary seats by taking part in the elections as competitors, rather than allies. While formally complying with law and procedures, the creation of these governments did not comply with the decision made by people through the election.

Meanwhile, in 2013, a ruling by the [[Constitutional Court of Italy]] established that the Italian electoral system employed to elect the Parliament breached a number of Constitutional requirements.<ref>{{cite news|title=Italy's top court rules electoral law breaches constitution|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-law-unconstitutional-idUSBRE9B30YW20131204|work=Reuters}}</ref> Notably, the Court observed the following four facts:<ref name="cortecostituzionale.it">{{cite web|title=Giudizio di leggitimità costituzionale in via incidentale|url=http://www.cortecostituzionale.it/actionSchedaPronuncia.do?tipo_view=P&anno=2014&numero=1|publisher=Corte Costituzionale della Repubblica Italiana}}</ref> 1) "such a legislation deprives the elector of any margin of choice of its representatives"; 2) "all of the elected parliamentarians, with no exception, lack the support of a personal designation by the citizens"; 3) the electoral law has regulations which "exclude any ability on the part of the elector to have an influence on the election of his/her representatives"; 4) and contains conditions such that "they alter the representative relationship between electors and elected people...they coerce the electors' freedom of choice in the election of their representatives to the Parliament...and consequently they are at odds with the democratic principle, by affecting the very freedom of vote provided for by art. 48 of the Constitution". This implies that, despite being called – and acting as – a legitimate "parliament",<ref>{{cite web|title=Italy Constitutional Court: parliament legitimate, electoral law unconstitutional|url=http://jurist.org/paperchase/2014/01/italy-constitutional-court-parliament-legitimate-electoral-law-unconstitutional.php|publisher=Jurist}}</ref> the legislative assembly of Italy was chosen with a vote system by which the right to vote was not exercised according to the Italian fundamental chart of citizen's rights and duties. The issue was a major one, to the extent that the Constitutional Court itself ruled that the Italian Parliament should remain in charge only to reform the electoral system and then should be dissolved.<ref name="cortecostituzionale.it"/>

The new government led by [[Matteo Renzi]] proposed a new electoral law. The so-called [[Italicum]] was approved in 2015 and came into force on 1 July 2016.