ROME, Italy (AFP) — Italian Members of Parliament voted Wednesday to broaden the definition of sexual violence to include non-consensual acts, in a rare collaboration between Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and opposition leader Elly Schlein.

Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy party voted together with Schlein’s centre-left Democratic Party (PD) in the lower house of parliament to update the penal code to make it easier to prosecute rape.

To become law the proposal must now go to a vote in the Senate, where it is expected to pass.

Rape is currently defined as being committed with physical coercion, threats or abuse of authority.

Advocates say the updated law would make it easier to report and prosecute sexual assault, removing the onus for victims to show physical signs of abuse.

The law does not change the penalty, which remains a prison sentence of between six and 12 years.

Democratic Party MP Laura Boldrini, who put forward the proposal, said it was needed because in Italy “the prejudice persists that holds women responsible for sexual violence against women”.

Broadening the definition of rape would give “centrality to women’s will in the sexual sphere, to this day still culturally considered subordinate” to what men want, she said.

It would also shift the focus in trial to the perpetrator’s conduct, rather than determining whether the victim did enough to defend herself.

The lower chamber of parliament’s Justice Commission approved the amendment last week after it was backed directly by Meloni and Schlein.

It follows several controversial rulings in rape cases in recent years which have sparked national outrage.

In one of the most recent, an Ancona appeals court overturned the acquittal of a 25-year-old man accused of raping a 17-year-old in a car.

He was initially found not guilty on the grounds that the victim, who stayed in the car with the man after another couple got out, should have anticipated she might be assaulted, because she was not a virgin.