Did you know that Australia has two representatives in the Italian Parliament?
In fact, Italian citizens living abroad have the right to elect their own representatives to Rome, and among those citizens are more than 100,000 Australian residents, many of which are also Australian citizens.
This electorate is in fact the biggest of any national election in the world, spanning across Asia, Africa, part of the Middle East and even Antarctica. Australia is home to the bulk of its voters, who elect one Lower House MP and one Senator.
It is one of four overseas constituencies electing MPs and Senators to the Italian Parliament, as Italy is one of few countries to reserve seats for its citizens living abroad. Up until last Tuesday the representatives of these electorates totalled 18, with 12 MPs and six senators. But that will not be the case after the next Italian election.
On Tuesday, October 8, the Italian Lower house voted to cut Italy's national representatives from 945 to 600 in what Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte called a "historic day for Italy". The changes will take place at the next Italian election, currently due in 2023.
Italian overseas constituencies Source: CC BY-SA 4.0
The cut was one of the key commitments of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, who are now in the latest coalition government. As part of the cut, overseas representatives were reduced from 18 to 12 (8 MPs and 6 senators).
But what happened to the two 'Aussie' representatives?
"As far as our electorate is concerned, nothing changes," says Nicola Carè, the MP who represents the Australian electorate at the Italian Parliament. "One MP and one senator will remain."
Mr Carè, formerly the Secretary General at the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Sydney, was elected for his first term in March 2018, running for the center-left Democratic Party. In September, after a split within the party, he followed former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in his newly-formed political party Italia Viva, which alongside his former party support the Conte Government together with the Five Star Movement.
Carè told SBS Italian about one of the new movement's priorities: "We will support this government until the end of the legislature."
Nicola Carè Source: https://www.facebook.com/nicola.care.167
The other representative of the Italian voters living in Australia is senator Francesco Giacobbe, a Sydney-based accountant and university lecturer who decided to remain within the Democratic Party.
Both Giacobbe and Carè are Australian and Italian citizens, as there is no prohibition of dual citizens serving in the Italian Parliament.
In the smaller Italian Parliament the proportional power of these two representatives will be higher. It's a marginal power, but not insignificant in the right circumstances.
In 2006, a deadlocked race between Silvio Berlusconi's center-right coalition and Romano Prodi's center-left alliance was decided at the eleventh hour. Thanks to overseas voters and a handful of senators elected overseas Prodi's alliance won out.
