Translated automatically by AI from the Italian original.
ROME / PALERMO – To set a “safeguard cap” to prevent the demographic crisis and the ongoing depopulation of the two largest islands from gradually reducing the political and institutional weight of Sicily and Sardinia within the Italian Parliament. This is the goal of the constitutional reform bill tabled by Democratic Party senators Marco Meloni and Antonio Nicita.
The initiative aims to amend articles 56 and 57 of the Constitution by introducing a criterion that guarantees the two island regions a number of seats in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate no lower than the allocation based on the 2021 census.
The “vicious circle” of insularity and demographic decline
The bill’s sponsors highlight how the combination of structural shortcomings and emigration is fuelling a damaging spiral for island communities:
“Distance, transport costs, lack of services and fewer job and study opportunities contribute to low birth rates and high, rising emigration, especially among young people. This creates a vicious circle: the disadvantages of insularity contribute to depopulation, which in turn risks reducing the islands’ weight in the institutions tasked with adopting measures to address those very disadvantages.”
— Marco Meloni and Antonio Nicita, PD senators
How the safeguard clause works
The bill does not seek to return to the number of MPs before the 2020 cut, nor does it involve an increase in the total number of deputies and senators at Montecitorio and Palazzo Madama. The rule simply neutralises the effects of any future demographic decline on the minimum quota due to the two regions:
- Total number unchanged: It does not increase the overall total of 400 deputies and 200 elected senators.
- Minimum threshold tied to 2021: The number of seats reserved for Sicily and Sardinia cannot fall below the figure set by the 2021 census data.
- Implementation of article 119: Giving substance to the principle of insularity inserted into the Constitution in 2022.
“Approving this reform means giving concrete effect, in terms of representation, to the principle of insularity, recognised by the Constitution in 2022 and left unimplemented in this legislature due to the responsibility of the government and the right‑wing majority.”
— Marco Meloni and Antonio Nicita, PD senators
