An early election was not in the plans of the Italian-Brazilian candidates at this time.
The Italian President, Sergio Mattarella, today received the presidents of the two chambers of parliament (Senate and Chamber of Deputies) and decreed the end of the current legislature following the resignation of the prime minister, technocrat Mario Draghi.
“The political situation has led to this decision,” the President said in a televised speech after formalizing the dissolution of parliament, which will automatically lead to early elections in Italy.
Elections must be held within 70 days of the dissolution of parliament, which means the ballot will be on September 25th.
“That’s what we wanted. Everything is ready to compete for a place”, said deputy Luis Roberto Lorenzato, representative of the League.
In 2018, he won one of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies to represent the South American constituency.
Architect Fausto Longo, from the center-left Democratic Party (PD), took the other spot.
Reform reduced seats in parliament
At that time, Italy allowed citizens residing abroad to elect 18 representatives in Parliament, including 12 deputies and six senators. These parliamentarians were divided between four constituencies: South America; North and Central America; Europe; and Africa, Asia, Oceania and Antarctica.
In South America, Italians elected four deputies and two senators – in an election marred by scandal.
Fabio Porta only took up his seat in the Senate in January this year, after a long legal battle. the Argentine Adriano Cario had his mandate revoked due to electoral fraud.
With the political reform approved in 2020, which reduces the number of elected parliamentarians, the number fell from 18 (12 deputies and six senators) to 12 (eight deputies and four senators).
Difficulty choosing a representative
It is not yet clear how many vacancies will be made available for South America. It is speculated that Argentines and Brazilians will choose only 2 deputies.
In 2018, 24 Italian-Brazilians or Italians residing in Brazil ran for a seat in the Italian Parliament.
Around one million three hundred thousand voters were eligible to vote by mail for the renewal of the Italian Parliament throughout South America. Argentina had 714 thousand voters and Brazil had 351 thousand voters, despite having the largest Italian colony.
