Meloni pushes change to let voters directly elect Italy’s premier in bid to make governments last

By FRANCES D’EMILIO
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni’s Cabinet has approved her proposal to make the prime minister’s office directly elected by voters in a bid to make Italy’s governments more stable and lasting. The Cabinet on Friday gave the go-ahead to efforts to change Italy’s post-war Constitution to allow voters to elect a premier who would serve five years — to coincide with Parliament’s term. Most Italian governments in the last decades have lasted far less, sometimes only weeks. Meloni says that what she calls the “mother of all reforms” will guarantee more government stability. But there’s no guarantee the change will become reality and it’s likely the voters who would have the final say in a referendum.