Italian PM Meloni's 'mother of all reforms' gets first okay in parliament

An ambitious overhaul of the Italian constitution to allow for the direct election of a prime minister won the Senate's approval on Tuesday, the start of what is likely to be an uncertain path to the statute books.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has pushed hard for the change, calling it "the mother of all reforms", but it faces determined resistance from opposition parties and will almost assuredly need to be put to a referendum.

Under the proposal, the prime minister would be elected for five years and the coalition supporting the winning candidate will be given at least 55% of seats, to make sure it has a workable majority in both houses of parliament.

Meloni's right-wing coalition says the new law will help end chronic political instability in Italy, which has had almost 70 governments since World War Two, and make the nation more democratic in the process.

Critics say the bill could trigger chaos, with voters able to back one person to be prime minister, while picking lawmakers from another party. Israel in the 1990s was the only country to ever try such a system, but had to ditch it because it failed to bring the promised solidity.

Former Prime Minister Mario Monti told the Senate that the bill would strip Italy of the ability to respond nimbly to severe crises - as happened in 2011 when he was asked by the then president to take charge during a financial crisis.

"The reform will no longer allow the degrees of flexibility in the system that have sometimes proven useful in emergencies in Italy," he said.

However, she has said she would not resign if she lost an eventual referendum, which is likely to be held in 2025.