Rome, 12 June 2022 – An announced flop, that of referendum on justice of 12 June 2022. Quorum not reached, at a sidereal distance, turnout at historic lows and predictably invalid abrogative consultation. It is not surprising, in Italy, that a referendum fails while remaining below 50% of voters. It happened for 28 questions out of 67 abrogative referendums in the history of the Republic. All concentrated in eight consultations. Let’s see which ones.
In the beginning it was the referendum on huntingthree questions (one on the use of pesticides) in the 1990. Turnout around 43%, no quorum. Seven years after the second flop: there are 7 questions on which to express oneself, from privatizations to conscientious objection, passing through careers of magistrates until the abolition of the order of journalists. Single cauldron, great confusion. We are in 1997, the signal is strong and the voters hardly exceed 30% of those entitled.
Two years later, in 1999, back to the polls for theabolition of the proportional share in the elections of the Chamber of Deputies. This time the theme is clear, the only question. But that’s not enough. It reaches 49.6%, a quorum only close to. We try again, then, with the rich and varied dish: we are in 2000, seven questions are voted on, the most important is therepeal of article 18 of the Workers’ Statute on layoffs, the rules on reintegration. It ends more or less like in 1997, with turnout just over 32%.
Three years later, in 2003new attempt with reduced questions: we go to the polls for extend to all workers the right to be reinstated if made redundant for just cause. In short, given the flop of the 2000 referendum that went in the opposite direction, Communist Refoundation – promoter of the consultation – tries to blow the bank. The game also involved a second question to abrogate the compulsory easement of power lines. It is a failure: the turnout reaches 25.5% for the first question and 25.6% for the second.
Similar result looms in the 2005: the questions are four, ranging from the abolition of the limits to access to assisted fertilization to that for the prohibition of heterologous. We also want to remove the limits to research on embryos. The issue is delicate, the Church squares: turnout at 25.5%.
It gets even worse in the 2009, for the three questions on the electoral law: it remains below 24%. And again in the 2016, the last flop with the referendum on the extension of concessions for hydrocarbon extraction within 12 nautical miles. Dry question, it returns above 30% (31.84%), but the quorum remains very far away. In between, the parenthesis of 2011: among other things (4 questions) are voted to repeal the rules that provide for the privatization of water and those that make possible the production of nuclear energy on the national territory. In between there is also the abolition of the legitimate impediment for high state offices. In the wake of the tragic events in Fukushima, with the tsunami in Japan, the referendum is a success: quorum for all 4 questions with percentages close to 55%.