Overseas constituencies of the Italian Parliament

The only exception to this rule was for the Italian elections to the European Parliament, in which since 1979 voters could cast their ballot at their nearest consulate, but only if they had their residence in one of the other EU countries.

Until 2001 the Italian Republic offered citizens living abroad a free return train journey to their home town in Italy in order to vote.

Various Italian minorities living abroad (notably in the United States) protested frequently at this lack of political representation, especially if they paid taxes on property owned in Italy.

The proposed constitution, put forward by the then Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, would have eliminated the seats assigned to the overseas constituencies in the Senate of the Republic.

[2] Each of the four constituencies elects at least one Deputy and one Senator, with the remaining seats distributed between the electoral zones in proportion to the number of Italian citizens resident in each.