ROME. With the polls closed, the countdown for the first session of the new Parliament has already started. There are 17 days left for the new Senate and the new Chamber of Deputies to be officially installed. The appointment is set for October 13, but already from 10 deputies and senators, especially those elected for the first time, will cross the doors of the two buildings for the fulfillment of bureaucratic tasks (from the photo for the parliamentary card to the assignment of the ‘personal account and email).
It will be a first ‘school day’ marked by an absolute novelty: 345 fewer deputies and senators will occupy the benches of the two chambers, a consequence of the constitutional reform by M5s which has cut the number of elected officials: from 630 to 400 in Montecitorio , from 315 to 200 in Palazzo Madama. A ‘void’ that will also be rendered plastically by the layout in the Chamber: the ‘extreme’ wings will be reduced, but not completely eliminated, to ensure capacity for common sessions.
‘Directing’ the work of the first session of the two branches of Parliament will be up to the life senator Liliana Segre and the outgoing vice president of Montecitorio, Renziano Ettore Rosato. The regulations determine who is responsible for presiding over the proceedings of the first session of the Chamber and Senate. In Montecitorio the task is assigned to the eldest by election among the vice-presidents of the previous legislature, therefore Rosato. In the Senate the role is provisionally entrusted to the oldest in age, therefore the president emeritus Giorgio Napolitano. Role that he has already played at the start of the legislature that has just ended. But the health conditions of the former President of the Republic point to a passing of the baton in favor of life senator Liliana Segre. The respective provisional presidents will then proceed with the proclamation of the elect. Afterwards, we proceed with the session called to elect the new presidents of the Chamber and Senate, who will succeed Roberto Fico and Elisabetta Casellati.
The election of the President of the Chamber takes place by secret ballot with a majority of two thirds of the members, from the second ballot a majority of two thirds of the votes is required, also calculating the blank ballots. After the third ballot, an absolute majority of votes is sufficient. An absolute majority of the votes of the members is required to elect the President of the Senate in the first and second voting. If the two votes are unsuccessful, the next day there is a third vote in which the absolute majority of the votes of those present is sufficient, including the blank ballots among the votes.