ROME - The Rosatellum election-law bill has passed the Senate and will become law after being published in the Official Gazette, as it has already been cleared by the Chamber of Deputies. The final tally of votes for the bill was 214 in favour, 61 against, and one abstention.

 The 5-Star Movement (M5S) has protested the bill, saying that it is designed to stop the M5S party from winning next year’s general election. M5S has been unwilling to ally with another party, and the Rosatellum bill will favour parties which group together as coalitions before the election. The bill may also harm the chances for other left-wing parties that do not wish to join a coalition with the Democratic Party. The law will create a mixed electoral system, in which 36% of the seats will be won by majority, first-past-the-post, votes, and 64% will be proportional seats. Coalitions would need to get 10 percent of the national vote in the next election to get into parliament, and parties running alone would need 3 percent. 

 M5S have issued a statement condemning the law as “bunga-bunga.” They have referred to it as a “multi-candidate orgy where the end user is invariably always the same. You are the same gang, you are without ideas, without grams, but with the same project, to keep the armchairs (sic) to continue to wear out and skin a nation on the run.” They have also accused Forza Italia, Silvio Burlusconi’s centre-right party, and the ruling centre-left Democratic Party (PD) of committing “electoral fraud” in passing this bill. Following the result of the last confidence vote Thursday, M5S have appealed their case to President Sergio Mattarella.