Senate of the Republic (Istalia)

The Senate of the Republic (Istalian: Senato della Repubblica), often called simply Senato, is the upper house of the Istalian Parliament. It consist of 100 members, called Senators (Istalian: Senatori), elected every four years together with the deputies of the Chamber. The current shape of the Senate has been introduced at the beginning of the 41st century while the last electoral reforms is of 4134. The current and the previous Istalian Republic experienced several periods without upper house and the name Senate was sometime used also to call the Chamber when the Constitution provided an unicameral parliament. The President of the Senate presides over the works of the Senate. He or she is elected on the first session of the Senate after the election. Among the powers of the President of the Senate, he is the official of the Republic called to act as Deputy President of the Republic in case of permanent impediment of the President.

Role
According to the Law, the Senate is a consultative body and a chamber of the regions, it can propose bills, send recommendation to the other Chamber and to the Government and it has part into the legislative process about the regional, local and constitutional matters. However, the Chamber of Deputies can always overcome any decision take by the Senate if more than half of all the members of the Chamber of Deputies vote to reject it exept for the Constitutional changement: in this case the Chamber cannot work alone due that a constitutional law to pass indeed requires a qualified majority of 2/3 also by the Senate. When provided by the Constitution, Chamber of Deputies and Senate may convene jointly into the Joint Session of the Istalian Parliament. The session is presided over jointly by the Presidents of the Chamber and Senate.

Election
Since 4196, the Senators are elected with a corrected proportional system. It provides that 80 senators are elected on regional basis through a proportional system offering a majority bonus with which each region elects 16 senators of which 10 are expressed by the party with the relative majority, 5 by the second one and 1 by the third one. The last 20 Senators are instead elected into a single national constituency, on the basis of the total votes gained by each party, and the seats are allocated using the d'Hondt method.

Membership
      Main article: Current membership of the Senate of the Republic

Location
The Senate of the Republic, since 4238, shares the same complext with the Chamber of Deputies, that is the Palace of the Republic. Previously the Senate met in various location when the Constitution provided a bicameral parliament. The last one before moving into the current complex was the Palace of the Congregation (Istalian: Palazzo della Congregazione), ancient seat of a Church's council-like institution of the Romula's Clergy.