The Radicals living in Italy are currently active in the collection of signatures for 9 referendum requests and a popular bill.
It is a gigantic enterprise. The Italian constitution has laid down extremely restrictive measures for that which concerns referendums. It is necessary to collect 500,000 signatures for each referendum, and each of these must be certified by a notary.
Following the collection, the Court of Cassation judges on the validity of the signatures (this means calculating a safety margin of 200,000 more signatures). After this, the Constitutional Court examines the acceptability of the referendum questions. Thanks to this last analysis, it has often been possible, in the past, to cancel - in a moment - several referendum questions. This happened two years ago when the Radicals, together with other political forces, had collected the signatures necessary for the organization of two referendums aiming at the modification in an Anglo-Saxon sense of the electoral system in force for the elections at the Senate. This is why, after having changed the questions, the radicals and other political forces are once again active in the collection of signatures on this same subject.
Following are the subjects of the nine referendums and of the popular bill and the number of signatures currently collected for each of them:
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SUBJECTS SIGNATURES COLLECTED AT 7/11
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1. Abolition of public 64.053
financing to the parties
(on the initiative of the RP)
2. Abolition of the law on drugs which 58.244
punishes the consumers instead
of the traffickers
(on the initiative of the RP and of the CoRA)
3. Abolition of environmental controls on 56.642
the part of the Local Health Units
(on the initiatives of a number of
political forces, including the radicals)
4. Abolition of the parties' power of 55.095
appointment in the banking sector
(on the initiative of a number of political
forces, including the radicals)
5. Abolition of the Southern Italy Development 55.561
Fund, i.e. of the State's welfare policy in
Southern Italy
(on the initiative of a number of political
forces, including the radicals)
6. Abolition of State holdings in the 54.906
industrial sector
(on the initiative of a number of political
forces, including the radicals)
7. Modification in an Anglo-Saxon sense of the 55.088
electoral system of the Senate
(on the initiative of a number of political
forces, including the radicals)
8. Modification in an Anglo-Saxon sense of the 55.541
electoral system of the Senate (other question)
(on the initiative of a number of political
forces, including the radicals)
9. Modification in an Anglo-Saxon sense of the 55.308
electoral system of the municipalities
(on the initiative of a number of political
forces, including the radicals)
10. Popular bill for the extension 36.703
of the Anglo-Saxon system to the Chamber (*)
(on the initiative of the Radical Party)
At the moment, the number of signatures collected includes only the ones collected directly at the tables which the radicals are organizing in the streets and squares of several cities of Italy. The number, therefore, does not include the signatures collected by other organizations nor those of the citizens who sign directly at the municipal offices.
As you may see, almost all referendums are aimed at subtracting power to the State and to the parties, in other words, at giving back the power to the citizens.
We will keep you informed in our next issues on the progress made by this initiative, which is important not only for Italy.
(*) The popular bill calls for the collection of 50,000 signatures.
