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

In a secret ballot in Italy’s lower house of parliament on Wednesday evening, MPs rejected a proposal spearheaded by her party, Brothers of Italy (FdI), by 188 votes to 187 – indicating that several of Meloni’s MPs voted against the amendment.

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

“The opposition celebrating as if they had won the World Cup, for preventing citizens from choosing their parliamentarians says it all,” she added, referencing jubilant scenes in parliament by opposition parties.

Meloni did not address calls from the opposition to resign and bring forward the general election, currently planned for autumn 2027.

The proposed reform would see Italy move to a fully proportional system which would award a bonus to the party or coalition with the largest share of the vote, even if they fall short of a majority.

Coalitions would also be required to agree on a common platform and a single prime ministerial candidate – something that many parties, which tend to campaign separately, would find unpalatable.

The amendment that was rejected in Tuesday’s vote was a provision on preference voting, allowing voters to choose preferred candidates from a list. Although that element was rejected, the government can continue to press ahead with the rest of the electoral reform.

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

But opposition parties had criticised 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, plus her own hard-right FdI.

But tensions within the coalition have increased as the parties’ individual popularity has declined. They became exacerbated ahead of Tuesday’s vote – which FdI’s junior partners had reservations about – eventually culminating in the defeat of the amendment.

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

They already teamed up 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 her government.

If she is going to win a safer majority next year, Meloni will have to broaden her appeal either to the centre or towards more extremist groups, such as Roberto Vannacci’s fledgling National Future (FN).

Vannacci, a former paratrooper, launched FN earlier this year after splintering from Matteo Salvini’s League party. The FN is a Eurosceptic, hard-right proponent of remigration – the mass deportation of people with a migrant background. It now polls at around 6%, ahead of the League’s 5.6%.

Bar an early vote or a reshuffle, if elections are held in September 2027, Meloni will be the first Italian prime minister to have governed for a whole term with just one government since 1946.