The official proclamation is missing, expected in the next few days, but for the first time at the helm of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia there will be a woman, Alessandra Todde. This time too, however, the vote did not reward the councilors who currently stand at 9 out of 60, a scant 15 percent. The Sardinian Assembly, therefore, is still markedly male. The main associations dealing with gender equality remember this on the occasion of 8 March, International Women’s Day.
“We enthusiastically welcomed the election of the first president of the Sardinian Region after 75 years of autonomous history and regional governments led by men. This March 8th will go down in history for this epochal turning point – underlines Carmina Conte, president of Coordinamento3 – However, we express concern and dismay at the limited representation of councilors which even marks a step backwards on the path to equality compared to the previous legislature, which recorded around 18 percent compared to 15 percent today. At this rate – Conte denounces – it will take 200 years to write new pages in the name of equal democracy. We will return to the office with our proposals for reform of the regional electoral law in support of double gender preference, also based on European experiences: evidently in Sardinia it has not expressed all its potential , as has happened in other regions and administrative offices, also, we believe, due to inappropriate use”.
A result, the one that came out of the polls, which requires reflection. “I expected a more encouraging outcome, but the process towards a balance between women and men in the composition of the Council is very slow – confirms Maria Laura Orrù, elected with the centre-left on the Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra list – We need work in the territories, because the small numbers they are the result of a culture that is still male-oriented.
The female point of view is indispensable in a democratic society.”
Diametrically opposite is the opinion of Alberto Urpi, mayor of Sanluri, who entered the Council on the centre-right with Sardinia at the center Twenty 20. “The conditions for an equal democracy – he explains – are respected by a series of laws, the one on double gender preference, on the guaranteed 50 percent of women on the electoral lists, on the composition of the junta. There cannot also be a law that guarantees election only for the fact of being a woman or a man. Numbers count in democracy, and the current law guarantees gender equality by making men and women compete on equal terms”.
What do these latest elections teach us? “The rules alone are not enough – replies the lawyer and professor of Constitutional Law Andrea Deffenu – Even for the most advanced ones, in order for them to be effective, cultural awareness is needed on the part of political forces and citizens. The double gender preference it is a soft solution, an incentive, which leaves citizens free to choose, it is not structured in such a way as to prefigure a result in favor of women”.
According to the expert, the law “must be strengthened with support measures that allow not only work-life conciliation, therefore an equipped welfare system, but also life-politics, to find solutions that allow fair gender representation in places of power, where decisions that affect everyone are made. Women and men of Sardinia”.
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