Italian Parliament

The Italian Parliament is the national parliament of the Italian Republic. It is the representative body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy, the transitional National Council and the Constituent Assembly. It is a bicameral legislature with 600 elected members and a small number of unelected members. The Italian Parliament is composed of the Chamber of Deputies, as well as the Senate of the Republic.
The two Houses are independent from one another and never meet jointly except under circumstances specified by the Constitution of Italy. By the Constitution, the two houses of the Italian Parliament possess the same powers, unlike in most parliamentary systems. Perfect bicameralism has been codified in its current form since the adoption of the Albertine Statute, and resurged after the overthrow of the fascist dictatorship of the 1920s and 1930s. No distinction is made between deputies and senators, notwithstanding that a member of parliament cannot be at the same time both a senator and a deputy; regarding presidents and vice-presidents, the precedence is given to the older one.

Composition of the Parliament

The number of deputies and senators was fixed by a constitutional amendment in 1963: in its original text, the Constitution provided for a variable number of Members of Parliament depending on the population. From 1963 to 2022, the Chamber of Deputies had 630 members, while the Senate had 315 elected members. Following the 2020 Italian constitutional referendum, the number of MPs in the Parliament has been reduced from 630 to 400 in the Chamber of Deputies and from 315 to 200 in the Senate. The proposed changes were approved, with 69.96% voting in favour. The reduction of the number of MPs came to fruition with the following Legislature XIX of Italy and it was a constitutional reform attended since the 1980s.
In addition to the 200 elected members, the Senate, as per article 59 of the Constitution of the Italian Republic, also comprises a small number of senators for life. These can be differentiated into:

former Presidents of the Republic, and
Italian citizens who are appointed senators for life by the President of the Republic "for outstanding merits in the social, scientific, artistic or literary field".

The voting age mandated for both houses is the age of majority: any Italian citizen who is eighteen or older can vote. But the two houses have a different age of candidacy: deputies are required to be twenty-five or older, while elected senators must be forty or older. No explicit age limit is required to be appointed senator for life.

Functions of the Parliament

The main prerogative of Parliament is the exercise of the legislative power, that is the power to enact laws. For a bill to become law, it must receive the support of both houses independently in the same text. A bill is first introduced in one of the houses, amended, and then approved or rejected: if approved, it is passed to the other house, which can amend it before approving or rejecting it. If approved without amendments, the bill is then promulgated by the President of the Republic and becomes law. If approved with amendments, it goes back to the other house. The process continues until the bill is approved in the same text by both houses or is rejected by one house.
The Council of Ministers, which is led by the President of the Council of Ministers and is the national executive of Italy, needs to have the confidence of both houses in order to exercise its power fully. It must receive a vote of confidence by both houses before being officially in power, and Parliament can cast a motion of no confidence at any moment, which forces the President of the Council of Ministers and his/her Cabinet to resign. The President of the Republic can dissolve one or both houses, and new elections are held if a new Prime Minister is unable to receive the support of both houses.

Legislative process

The process by which the Italian Parliament makes ordinary laws, the iter legis ordinario, is as follows:
Proposals can be made by the Government, individual Members of Parliament, private citizens, individual Regional Councils, and the National Council for Economics and Labour.
Once a proposal is introduced in one of the two Houses, it is assigned to a parliamentary committee to carry out preliminary inspection of the proposal. At this point, two different procedures can be taken.
In the "normal procedure", the committee holds a referral meeting, drafts a response and names a spokesperson to report this response, then leaves the responsibility for composing and approving the bill's text to the assembly. This must be completed in no more than four months for the Chamber of Deputies and two months for the Senate.
Once the bill has come before one of the chambers, a general discussion takes place, followed by the review article by article, and finally a vote on the whole bill, which is normally an open ballot. If the bill passes the vote in one chamber then it passes to the other chamber of the parliament, where it must be voted through without any further changes. If the other chamber does make any modifications to the bill then the new version of the bill must be returned to the first chamber to approve these changes. If the bill repeats this process many times it is said to be "shuttling" or "dribbling." This procedure is obligatory for bills which concern constitutional and electoral matters, the delegation of legislative power, the authorisation of the ratification of international treaties, the approval of the budget.
In all other cases, the "special procedure" can be employed. In this case, the committee holds a drafting meeting, or a deliberative/legislative meeting. This procedure can be vetoed by the vote of one tenth of the members of the Chamber in which the bill was originally proposed, by a vote of one fifth of the members of the committee, or by the decision of the Government.
There are special procedures for the passage of laws granting emergency powers, the annual law incorporating EU law, annual financial laws, and the passage of laws under urgency.
Once the bill has been approved in the same form by both houses of Parliament, it is sent to the President of the Republic, who must promulgate it within one month or send it back to Parliament for renewed debate with a written justification. If after the renewed debate the bill is approved by Parliament again, the President of the Republic is constitutionally required to promulgate it. Once it has been promulgated, the law is published in the official gazette by the Ministry of Justice and enters into force after the vacatio legis.

Amendments to the Constitution and to constitutional laws

The rigidity of the Constitution is ensured by the special procedure required to amend it. With the same procedure, Parliament can adopt a constitutional law, which is a law with the same strength as the Constitution. This process is referred to as iter legis aggravato, that is, a strengthened legislative process ad hoc for the passing of a constitutional law.
Article 138 of the Constitution provides for the special procedure through which the Parliament can adopt constitutional laws, which is a variation of the ordinary legislative procedure. The ordinary procedure to adopt a law in Italy requires both Houses of Parliament to approve the bill in the same text, with a simple majority. Constitutional laws start by following the same procedure; however, after having been approved for the first time, they need to be voted for by both Houses a second time, which can happen no sooner than three months after the first. In this second reading, no new amendments to the bill may be proposed: the bill must be either approved or rejected in its entirety.
The constitutional law needs to be approved by at least a majority of all MP's in each house in its second reading. Depending on the results of this second vote, the constitutional law may then follow two different paths.

If the bill is approved by a qualified majority of two-thirds of members in each house, it can be immediately promulgated by the President of the Republic and becomes law.
If the bill is approved by a majority of members in each house, but not enough to reach the qualified majority of two-thirds, it does not immediately become law. Instead, it must first be published in the Official Gazette. Within three months after its publication, a constitutional referendum may be requested by either 500,000 voters, five regional councils, or one-fifth of the members of a house of parliament. If no constitutional referendum has been requested after the three months have elapsed, the bill can be promulgated and becomes law. If a referendum is held, the constitutional law will be confirmed and promulgated only provided a simple majority of the "Yes"'s is achieved ; however, should there be more "No"'s than "Yes"'s, then the law will not be confirmed, and will consequently be abolished without entering into force at all.

Article 139 of the Constitution holds the "form of Republic" above amendment.

Reviewing and guiding the executive

In addition to its legislative functions, Parliament also reviews the actions of Government and provides it with political direction.
Parliament exercises its review function by means of questions and inquests. Questions consist of a written question directed to the Government, asking whether a certain claim is true, whether the Government is aware of it, and whether the Government is taking any action about it. The response can be given by the relevant Government minister, by the chairperson of the relevant ministry, or by an undersecretary. It may be given in writing or delivered to the parliament orally. The member who asked the question can respond to say whether or not the answer is satisfactory. In injunctions, a fact is noted with a request for the reasons for the conduct of the Government and its future intentions. The process is done by writing. If the member who filed the injunction is not satisfied with the response, they can present a motion to hold a debate in the Parliament.
The provision of political direction embodies the relationship of trust which is meant to exist between Parliament and the Government. It takes the form of confidence votes and votes of no confidence. These can be held concerning the entire Government or an individual minister. Other means of providing political direction include motions, resolutions, and day-orders giving instruction to the Government.