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Europe
Italy |
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Last reviewed: 22 May 2009 |
Country information
POLITICS
Parliament
Italy has a bicameral system composed of a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies. Both are directly elected and are of equal authority. The Speakers of the Senate and Chamber are respectively second and third to the President of the Republic in the Italian order of precedence.
Senate
100% of senatorial seats are decided on the basis of proportional representation according to regions (20 regional constituencies). There are two separate thresholds for parties and coalitions: single parties obtaining less than 8% of the vote in each single region are not represented in the Senate; coalitions failing to win 20% of the vote in each region do not obtain seats.
The threshold to reach in order to obtain a senatorial seat corresponds to 55% of all regional votes within each region. In the event of a close result, the coalition with the majority of votes is given extra seats to reach that percentage. On a national basis the seats amount to 308 (6 for constituencies overseas).
Chamber of Deputies
- 100% of parliamentary seats are decided on the basis of proportional representation with large voting districts replacing smaller constituencies (in total 27 districts)
- There are three separate cut-off thresholds for parties and coalitions:
- single parties obtaining less than 2% of the national vote are not represented in parliament, and their votes count towards their coalition's overall tally. (However, should some seats remain unallocated these votes are then assigned to those parties that have received less than 2% of the national vote in descending order.)
- parties obtaining less than 4% of the national vote (but more than 2%) are not given seats, but their votes count towards their coalition's tally;
- coalitions failing to win at least 10% of the national vote do not obtain seats.
- In the event of a close result and should the winning coalition not gain the necessary 340 seats (out of 618 plus 12 for constituencies representing Italians resident overseas) to guarantee a sufficient majority in the Chamber of Deputies, then the "missing" extra seats (see (1) above) are given to this coalition.
Government
Consists of the President of the Council of Ministers and departmental Ministers who together constitute the Council of Ministers. Ministers are nominated by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the President of the Republic.
Regional Government
Italy is made up of 20 regions, including 5 autonomous regions. Regional Presidents have been directly elected since 1998.
Defence
NATO, of which Italy is a founder member, is the cornerstone of Italian defence policy. UK-Italy bilateral defence relations are excellent; Italy currently regards the UK as the military partner of choice and is a close ally on ESDP.
Italy plays a prominent role in peacekeeping, stabilisation and reconstruction operations in the Lebanon, Afghanistan and the Balkans and it participates in the NATO Training Mission in Iraq as well as in many UN and other missions around the world. Numbers fluctuate (and the figures below are only a guide) but the total number of Italian troops deployed abroad amounts to an average of around 10,000.
Around 2,800 Italian troops are currently deployed in Afghanistan as part of NATO's international peacekeeping force; Italy has the lead in Regional Command West in Herat, where it runs a Provincial Reconstruction Team and makes a significant contribution to the Forward Support Base established there. Since 2006, Italy also leads the UN mission in the Lebanon - UNIFIL - with a deployment of around 2,500 troops, and continues to deploy around 3,000 troops in the Balkans, mainly in Kosovo.
Although it withdrew its troops from south-east Iraq at the end of 2006, Italy still contributes personnel to the NATO Training Mission in Baghdad. It has deployed a Role 2 military field hospital to Chad under EUFOR with over 100 personnel, which will be taken on by Norway this summer and also has service personnel deployed in a large number of other (mostly UN-led) international operations around the globe. Finally, some 700 Italians sailors are deployed on naval operations worldwide, including a contingent operating under Operation Enduring Freedom in the Indian Ocean and the EU Operation Atalanta to counter piracy off the coast of Somalia.
