Back to the polls. The Court of Cassation has accepted the proposal of confirmatory referendum against cutting the number of parliamentarians filed on January 10th.
The constitutional reform that reduces the number of deputies in Montecitorio from 630 to 400 and the number of senators in Palazzo Madama from 315 to 200 had been definitively approved by the Chamber at the beginning of October with the favorable vote of almost all parties. The Law should have come into force on January 12, but the process was blocked a few days earlier bya referendum proposal signed by 71 senators and presented to the Court of Cassation.
Larticle 138 of the Constitution, in fact provides that "a referendum does not take place if the law has been approved in the second vote by each of the Chambers with a majority of two thirds of its members". If, however, this threshold is not reached there are three months to collect the useful signatures to put forward a proposal for a referendum. We need the signatures of a fifth of the members of one of the two chambers, of 500 voters or of 5 regional councils.
La reform on the cut of parliamentarians was passed by a two-thirds majority in the House, but in the Senate he obtained only a simple majority. For this reason, the senators had the opportunity to propose a confirmatory referendum.
It should be emphasized that to allow the minimum number of 64 signatures necessary to present the question against the cut of parliamentarians to be exceeded in extremis, it was the surprise support of eight Northern League senators and forzisti Roberta Toffanin and Dario Damiani. A decision that has unleashed the ire of the 5 Star Movement.
At this point the Government will have 60 days to decide on the date in which the Italians will have to cast their vote. In any case, the referendum must take place on a date between 50 and 70 days from 23 January. In all likelihood we will go to the polls between May and June.
