Italian constitutional referendum, 2016
A constitutional referendum will be held in Italy in October 2016.[1] Voters will be asked whether they approve of amending the Italian Constitution to transform the Senate of the Republic into a "Senate of Regions" composed of 100 senators mainly made up of regional councillors and mayors of large cities.[2] The reform was first proposed by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and his centre-left Democratic Party, although it was harshly criticised by some opposition parties.[3] Since the reform was not approved by more than two thirds of the Parliament, according to article 138 of the Constitution, a referendum could be required.[4]
It will be the third constitutional referendum in Italy in the last fifteen years after 2001 and 2006 referendums.
Background
When Matteo Renzi was appointed Prime Minister in February 2014, he pledged to implement a number of constitutional reforms. The first stage of Renzi's reform package aimed to abolish the so-called "perfect bicameralism", which gave identical powers to the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate; the reforms would substantially decrease the membership and power of the Senate. Under the reforms: the Senate's power to force the resignation of the Government by refusing to grant a vote of confidence would be removed; only a few types of bills, including constitutional bills, constitutional amendments, laws regarding local interests, referendums and the protection of linguistic minorities, would need to be passed by the Senate; the Senate could only propose amendments to bills in some cases, with the Chamber of Deputies always having the final word; and the membership of the Senate would be changed, with regional representatives appointed in a manner virtually identical to Germany's Bundesrat. Senators will also benefit from parliamentary immunity as same as Deputies.
As well as effectively abolishing the current Senate, the package also contained a new electoral law aimed at giving the party that came first in elections a lot of additional seats to allow them to form a government more easily, and an increase in the powers of the Prime Minister. Renzi was accused by some politicians and constitutionalists, such as Stefano Rodotà or Fausto Bertinotti, of being an authoritarian and anti-democratic leader for proposing these changes,[5][6][7][8][9] while others, like Gianfranco Pasquino, argue that the adopted texts are badly written.[10][11] In February 2016, professor Giovanni Sartori has declared: "Renzi's reforms: errors and incompetencies". In April 2016, fiftysix constitutionalists wrote a paper called "appello dei costituzionalisti" with the aim to present the critical aspects of the reform and the many concerns of scholars; among them are Francesco Amirante, Paolo Caretti, Lorenza Carlassare, Ugo De Siervo, Giovanni Maria Flick, Paolo Maddalena, Valerio Onida, Alfonso Quaranta and Gustavo Zagrebelsky.
After the proposals passed both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate multiple times, Renzi announced that he would hold a referendum to secure the endorsement of the Italian people for the change. In January 2016, announcing an October date for the referendum, Matteo Renzi stated that, if his reforms were rejected he would resign as Prime Minister and leave politics.[12] Some opposition parties, predominantly Five Star Movement, Lega Nord and Italian Left, but also some newspapers like Il Fatto Quotidiano and Il manifesto, accused Renzi of turning the referendum into a plebiscite on his premiership with those comments.[13]
On 15 January 2016, la Repubblica announced that Renzi had hired American political adviser Jim Messina, who had previously managed Barack Obama's presidential campaigns, to oversee the campaign for "Yes".[14]
Campaign
Position of main political parties
| Choice | Parties | Leaders |
|---|---|---|
 Yes |
Democratic Party (Partito Democratico, PD) | Matteo Renzi |
| New Centre-Right (Nuovo Centrodestra, NCD) | Angelino Alfano | |
| Civic Choice (Scelta Civica, SC) | Enrico Zanetti | |
| Union of the Centre (Unione di Centro, UdC) | Pierferdinando Casini | |
 No |
Five Star Movement (Movimento Cinque Stelle, M5S) | Beppe Grillo |
| Forward Italy (Forza Italia, FI) | Silvio Berlusconi | |
| Northern League (Lega Nord, LN) | Matteo Salvini | |
| Italian Left (Sinistra Italiana, SI) | TBD | |
| Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d'Italia, FdI) | Giorgia Meloni | |
| Possible (Possibile) | Giuseppe Civati |
Position of main newspapers
Newspapers for "Yes"
Newspapers for "No"
Formally neutral
Opinion polls
| Date | Polling Firm | Total | Considering only Yes/No vote | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes |
No |
None / Don't know | Lead | Yes |
No |
Lead | |||
| 29-30 Apr 2016 | Index Research | 49.0 | 36.0 | 15.0 | 13.0 | 50.0 | 30.0 | 20.0 | |
| 27 Apr 2016 | Euromedia Research | 30.0 | 32.5 | 37.5 | 2.5 | 48.0 | 52.0 | 4.0 | |
| 27 Apr 2016 | Ixè | N/A | N/A | 30.0 | N/A | 51.0 | 49.0 | 2.0 | |
| 26–27 Apr 2016 | Demopolis | N/A | N/A | 53.0 | N/A | 58.0 | 42.0 | 16.0 | |
| 20 Apr 2016 | Ixè | N/A | N/A | 31.0 | N/A | 53.0 | 47.0 | 6.0 | |
| 18 Apr 2016 | Euromedia Research | 26.0 | 28.1 | 45.9 | 2.1 | 48.1 | 51.9 | 3.8 | |
| 15 Apr 2016 | Euromedia Research | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 50.3 | 49.7 | 0.6 | |
| 12–14 Apr 2016 | ScenariPolitici–Winpoll | 29.0 | 32.0 | 39.0 | 3.0 | 47.5 | 52.5 | 5.0 | |
| 8 Feb 2016 | Piepoli | 42.2 | 23.8 | 34.0 | 21.6 | 64.0 | 36.0 | 28.0 | |
| 27 Jan 2016 | Ipsos | 21.0 | 16.0 | 63.0 | 5.0 | 57.0 | 43.0 | 14.0 | |
| 23–24 Jan 2016 | EMG | 34.5 | 14.8 | 50.7 | 19.7 | 69.9 | 30.1 | 39.8 | |
| 9–10 Jan 2016 | EMG | 36.1 | 17.9 | 46.0 | 18.2 | 66.8 | 33.2 | 33.6 | |
| Source: Sondaggi Politico Elettorali – Italian Government | |||||||||
Results
| Choice | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | | 0.00% |
| No | | 0.00% |
| Invalid/blank votes | | 0.00% |
| Total | | 0.00% |
| Registered voters/turnout | | 0.00% |
| Source: | ||
References
- ↑ Riforme, alla Camera il sì passa senza problemi: e ora si pensa già al referendum
- ↑ La nuova Costituzione e il nuovo Senato
- ↑ Riforme, al Senato scontro tra maggioranza e opposizione per l'emendamento 'canguro'
- ↑ Riforme, lunedì al via 'rush finale': obiettivo referendum
- ↑ Renzi: “Abolizione Senato il 10 giugno”. Riforma Pa: “Beccare fannulloni”
- ↑ "Renzi progetta un premierato forte e già lo pratica". L'Huffington Post. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
- ↑ Silvia Truzzi. "Riforme, Rodotà: "Avremo un governo padrone del sistema costituzionale" - Il Fatto Quotidiano". Il Fatto Quotidiano. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
- ↑ "Bertinotti: "L’ordine nuovo di Renzi. Autoritario, non di sinistra"". Eddyburg.it. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
- ↑ "Bertinotti: "Con Renzi la sinistra non esiste più..."". Retrieved 7 June 2015.
- ↑ Gianfranco Pasquino, “Cittadini senza scettro. Le riforme sbagliate”, reviewed by Sabino Cassese, “Le riforme e lo spezzatino”, in Sole 24 ore, DICEMBRE 28, 2015.
- ↑ (Italian) Giampiero Buonomo, La transizione infinita Mondoperaio, n. 2/2016, pp. 88-90.
- ↑ Renzi: Referendum? Se perdo vado a casa
- ↑ Riforme, Sinistra Italiana: "Renzi vuole trasformare il referendum in un plebiscito su di sé"
- ↑ Renzi assume Jim Messina per risolvere i problemi del Pd (come consigliato dal Foglio mesi fa)
- ↑ Perché il referendum non è un plebiscito ma nemmeno un appuntamento neutro
- ↑ Referendum, costituzione repubblicana o "principato" renziano?
- ↑ Riforme, ddl approvato alla Camera. Comitato per il No al referendum scalda i moto
- ↑ Il Referendum plebiscito
- ↑ Il sondaggio che manda a casa Renzi. Preparo la valigia: ecco i numeri
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