Italy’s Giorgia Meloni coalition government lost a crucial vote on an amendment to electoral reform, a major setback ahead of next year’s general election.

In a secret vote in the lower house of the Italian parliament on Wednesday afternoon, MPs rejected a proposal led by his party, Brothers of Italy (FdI), by 188 votes to 187, indicating that several of Meloni’s MPs voted against the amendment.

In an angry social media post after the vote, he said the result had been “a missed opportunity for Italians.”

“The opposition that celebrates as if it had won the World Cup, for preventing citizens from electing their parliamentarians, says it all,” he added, referring to the jubilant scenes of the opposition parties in parliament.

Meloni did not address opposition calls to resign and bring forward the general election, currently scheduled for fall 2027.

The proposed reform would see Italy move to a fully proportional system that would give a bonus to the party or coalition with the highest share of votes, even if they fall short of a majority.

It would also require coalitions to agree on a common platform and a single candidate for prime minister, something that many parties, which tend to campaign separately, would find unpalatable.

The amendment that was rejected in Tuesday’s vote was a preferential voting provision, which allowed voters to choose their preferred candidates from a list. Although that element was rejected, the government can move forward with the rest of the electoral reform.

Meloni has argued that the reform would result in less unstable government coalitions and greater stability in Italy.

But opposition parties criticized it as “authoritarian” and an attempt to secure a majority in next year’s general election.

Since 2022, Giorgia Meloni has led a coalition government made up of centre-right and right-wing parties, in addition to her own far-right FdI.

But tensions within the coalition have increased as the parties’ individual popularity has declined. They were exacerbated before Tuesday’s vote, about which the FdI’s junior partners had reservations, and ultimately culminated in the defeat of the amendment.

Meanwhile, center-left and left-wing opposition parties are preparing to form a united front against Meloni next year, adding to their concerns.

They already united successfully in a campaign against a government-backed referendum on constitutional reform in the spring, which Meloni’s camp lost in the first major blow to his government.

If he wants to win a more secure majority next year, Meloni will have to broaden his appeal towards the center or towards more extremist groups, such as Roberto Vannacci’s nascent National Future (FN).

Vannacci, a former paratrooper, launched FN earlier this year after splitting from Matteo Salvini’s League party. The FN is a far-right, eurosceptic advocate of remigration – the mass deportation of people of immigrant origin. Now polls put it at around 6%, ahead of the League’s 5.6%.

Barring an early vote or a reshuffle, if elections are held in September 2027, Meloni will be the first Italian prime minister to govern for a full term with a single government since 1946.