A few days before the referendums on June 8 and 9, the issue, more than the outcome of the vote, remains the quorum. It is not a given that the participation required for the consultation to be valid will be reached, that is, that at least half of those entitled to vote plus one go to the polls. Indeed, since yesterday it has been necessary to specify: that at least half of those entitled to vote plus one go to the polls and vote. Giorgia Meloni, for example, will do one thing but not the other: "I'll go to vote but I won't collect the ballot, it's one of the options," she told journalists on the sidelines of the Festa della Repubblica.
An unusual position: formally a tribute to the democratic custom of going to the polls, substantially an invitation to boycott the consultations, given that not withdrawing the ballot is a gesture that undermines the quorum exactly like not showing up at the polls .
And many in the center-right defend the "legitimacy" of the choice, with the deputy prime minister Antonio Tajani announcing his intention to abstain and the minister for relations with Parliament Luca Ciriani, FdI, arguing: "Abstention is a form of participation in the vote, the referendum provides for it otherwise there would be no quorum. Achieving it is a political objective, not achieving it is a political choice like any other."
The opposition thinks very differently: the M5S leader Giuseppe Conte finds it "shameful" that the prime minister announces abstention, especially while the referendum choice of the Italians for the Republic is being celebrated . And for the secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein, "I'm going to vote but I'm not voting is a mockery of the Italians".
The president of the Democratic senators, Francesco Boccia, was sarcastic: «It's like going to the stadium and not watching the match».
The full article by Celestino Tabasso on L'Unione Sarda today on newsstands and on the Digital App
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